Alarming rise in cases of preterm babies worry experts in Nakuru

The excitement of carrying a baby to full term and delivering safely is something that most women deeply cherish.

In many African cultures, there are celebrations to welcome a newborn. However, that was not the case for Jane Sunday.

Sunday anxiously stared at the incubators in the newborn unit at Nakuru Teaching and Referral Hospital.

She was lost in thought, holding onto the pain of losing her child just two days prior.

“I came here to admire these babies because I lost my angel,” she shared. “I am still in pain. I keep coming back as I try to heal from the trauma of losing my child.”

Sunday, a mother of twins, had undergone a C-section and was still recovering from the loss of her preterm baby.

She explained that the reason for her C-section was due to distress detected in her babies during her first pregnancy.

 “My first set of twins was born preterm at 33 weeks because the doctors told me the babies were in distress and their heartbeats were too low. I had to have an ultrasound to ascertain their condition,” she said.

She delivered her preterm baby at 33 weeks and remained in the hospital, unable to pay the accrued medical bill of Sh30,000.

Unfortunately, the Social Health Authority could not assist her as she is not covered.

In another hospital bed lies 20-year-old Irene Muthee from Nyandarua. She gave birth at just 28 weeks, with her baby weighing only 750 grams, and has been in the hospital for a month.

“When I was three months pregnant, I began experiencing severe headaches that persisted despite taking painkillers. The headaches worsened to the point of causing me to collapse, and my face and legs were swollen. I also felt dizzy,” she recounted.

Muthee discovered she had high blood pressure during her third maternal clinic visit, with levels soaring as high as 164/124, despite the doctors prescribing medication.

While at work, her condition worsened, leading to her loss of consciousness, after which she found herself in the hospital.

The doctors advised that she needed to be induced at 28 weeks to save both her and her baby’s lives as they had exhausted options to continue the pregnancy.

“The doctors explained that they had to remove the baby because the pregnancy was too risky. I was induced to expedite labor and had a normal delivery,” she said.

Two months ago, Susan Chepkemei delivered quadruplets, which were two sets of identical twins, via C-section.

Each baby weighed less than 1500 grams and required a month in incubators due to being born at 33 weeks.

“When the doctor suggested an ultrasound, I was only expecting one child. To my surprise, I learned I was having three. I received the news with gratitude, and my husband was overjoyed,” Chepkemei recalled.

On December 31, when she went to Nakuru County Teaching and Referral Hospital for delivery, she expected three babies but ended up giving birth to four.

“My family was ecstatic when they heard I had delivered four babies. When my husband learned the news, he said he was ready to take care of them all,” she added.

Despite the similarities in their appearance, she has named each baby and can identify them.

According to Veronica Ongwae, the nurse in charge at the facility, the babies were admitted to the newborn unit because they were born prematurely.

“The babies were born at 32 weeks instead of the expected 38 weeks, which is why they were placed in the newborn unit to gain weight before being moved to the Kangaroo wards,” she explained.

Alarming statistics

Experts have raised concerns about the increasing number of premature births. Statistics reveal that 70 per cent of the patients admitted are typically preterm births.

Dr Cynthia Njoroge, a paediatrician at Nakuru Teaching and Referral Hospital, notes that they receive preterm babies almost daily in the nursery unit.

“At any given time, our newborn unit has 60 to 80 babies requiring critical care to gain weight so they can feed independently,” she said.

Dr Njoroge describes preterm babies as those born alive before the 37-week gestation period, emphasising that a full-term baby should ideally be between 37 weeks and 41 weeks and three days.

She explains that various factors, including complications in the mother’s uterus, can lead to preterm births.

Underlying reasons

Njoroge explains the reason that may cause a mother to have a preterm baby, include when a mother has uterus complications like when the uterus has been affected with fibroids.

“When a woman has fibroid, she has higher chances of delivering before the pregnancy gets to full term. Fibroids are non-cancerous tumors that attach themselves along the uterine walls, “she stated.

She also adds that having infections such as urinary tract infections could also cause the mother to be at a predisposed risk of having early labor where the amniotic fluid could break before the mother reaches full-term pregnancy.

High blood pressure that comes with pregnancy complications or maternal-related conditions could also force the mother not to reach the full term of a pregnancy although some cases can be controlled most of the time such pregnancies are always very risky to both the mother and the baby.

Dr Njoroge says the mother could also have what is called cervical incompetence, a condition that someone is born with that possesses a very high risk of having a miscarriage or a preterm baby.

 “With cervical incompetence, the cervix is too small and weak to hold a baby to term this can also lead to one having a preterm baby or miscarriage,” she said.

Mercy Mwangi, a nutritionist explains what they feed the babies in the incubator as feeding is important to help improve their weight as their other organs grow healthier.

“We feed them through small tubes that are inserted through the mouth, because we also teach the mother how to express the milk, how to measure and how to feed the baby, “said Mwangi.

Mwangi says the babies are placed in the incubator for warmth and weight growth until they are at least 1500 grams then they remove the tube.

The mother is then taught how to use a cap to feed until they are two kilogrammes then they can begin breastfeeding.

Life saver

The expert says kangaroo mother care boosts a baby’s mental development, improves healthy weight, and milk production, and breastfeeding is made easier.

It also encourages a healthy heart rate and respiration.

Kangaroo mother care is when the mother and the baby have skin to skin touch. This also helps the mother and the baby to bond.

The method improves the immunity system of newborns, reduces baby’s stress and pain and increases milk production. At the unit, children are fed after every three hours.

Mothers, too, easily monitor progress of their babies as they continue with their roles as compared to when in incubators.

“Incubators are good, but they encourage growth of bacteria that can easily infect newborns. This is why we would like mothers to practice kangaroo mother care even at home,” she said.

She adds that before a baby is taken to the unit, they are weighed and those found to be preterm, those below 1.8 kilogram are taken to the newborn unit for specialised care.

Preterm babies lack body fats and are less able to regulate body temperatures. They are, therefore, taken to incubators that provide them with the required environment for survival.

“Mothers are trained on how to take care of children born prematurely and this includes proper hygiene and feeding that gradually improves their weight. With proper care, any child born with a weight of above 800 grams stands high chance of survival,” she said.

Pregnancy-related elements associated with premature birth, according to the medic, include poor nutrition during pregnancy, smoking, use of illegal drugs, and drinking too much alcohol.

“Most neonatal deaths are attributed to very low weight, more so children born below 800 grams because they are not able to breathe and their main organs are yet to develop fully to survive outside their mother’s womb,” she said.