Yesterday was World Premature Day, pregnant women gathered at Medforum Private Hospital in an effort to spread awareness and commemorate the day.
Associate professor at the North-West University, School of Nursing Science Professor, Welma Lubbe is turning awareness into action by the national research project that she is leading to implement neurodevelopmental supportive care in South African neonatal intensive care units.
“Let’s address the lack of adequate community-based and healthcare professional support. Anyone who has given birth prematurely understands how scary it can so consider sharing experiences with other families struggling with prematurity,” she said.
One of the patients who attended the lunch event, Dora Mabula spoke about her experience after giving birth a couple of months before her due date. She said even though she was a nurse for over 10 years she was still deeply concerned about her baby’s condition.
Premature babies’ health can cause a lot of strain and stress for the parents who need immense support and a lot of information during the early crucial stages of the baby’s growth.
“My son is doing extremely well at the moment and we have been blessed with a little strong fighter even though I was worried at the beginning, but as the days went on I started to see improvement and decided to stay positive to transfer the positive spirit to my baby,” said Mabula.
Medforum Private Hospital’s, Dr Katya De Campos explained prematurity was a big public health concern because it brought a heavy burden on the parents in terms of emotional pain and suffering. She said premature babies had a high mortality rate and are one of the leading causes of death of children under five years.
“Some of them turn out to have cerebral palsy, vision and hearing impairment, learning problems, chronic lung disease and quite a lot of other complications. Sometimes all of these conditions can also have a financial burden on the parents,” she De Campos.
She advised mothers who gave birth prematurely to keep a positive mind and get enough information from the experts at the hospital who are always readily available to equip the mothers with whatever they need.De Campos added that visits to the paediatrician were very important and that every step of the child’s growth and development needed to be tracked.
