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Dr Nyantaro attributed the high numbers to mothers shunning antenatal care, resorting to traditional birth attendants, and cases of hypertension, infections and malaria that go unmanaged.<\/p>\n
“Our efforts have centred on encouraging mothers to seek professional medical care when pregnant. Cases of hypertension, infections, malaria, among others, can be managed, but many have insisted on using traditional birth attendants. Other challenges are alcohol and drug abuse,” she said.<\/p>\n
She urged pregnant mothers to always attend antenatal care during pregnancy for proper medical supervision to reduce chances of preterm births.<\/p>\n
Leaders of the Rotary Club of Masaka who were at the hospital for the launch used the occasion to urge the Ministry of Health to investigate the root causes of the surging cases countrywide.<\/p>\n
Mr Daniel Mukasa Ddamulira, the district governor of Rotary District 9214, said the challenge is growing in every facility they have visited.<\/p>\n
“In line with one of our pillars of work, which is the promotion of healthcare, one of the areas we have concentrated on is supporting units that handle premature babies. Wherever we have gone, this challenge is growing. I think it calls for extra attention to establish the factors responsible,” he said.<\/p>\n
He said while Rotary will continue supporting neonatal units with incubators and other equipment, establishing the actual causes will save more lives.<\/p>\n
“When you get into this unit, you come to appreciate the great work this team does to save lives. We have got testimonies of babies born at six months who are now well-grown children. Our coming here testifies that we’re committed to supporting this unit to continue saving lives,” he added.<\/p>\n
The president of the Rotary Club of Masaka, Mr Sotius Ssegawa, said the club introduced the Wall of Hope to counsel parents who lose hope after delivering preterm babies.<\/p>\n
“We document journeys of recovery coupled with images, which serve as tools during counselling of parents. On top of the support of equipment we have offered, we found this a very critical component of the efforts,” he said.<\/p>\n
He said the club has extended support to lower health units including Kyannamukaaka Health Centre IV with life-saving machines for neonatal care.<\/p>\n
Masaka City Mayor Ms Florence Namayanja urged politicians to stop humiliating health workers in the name of promoting service delivery.<\/p>\n
“Promoting service delivery in health institutions should be a concerted effort. The government is trying, but the support of other partners like Rotary Club of Masaka plays a vital complementary role. That’s why we condemn irresponsible acts that can demotivate our health workers, who are already working under difficult conditions,” she said.<\/p>\n
According to Ministry of Health statistics, about 14 percent of all births in Uganda are preterm, translating to about 200,000 premature babies born every year, with high death rates due to limited specialized care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Masaka Regional Referral Hospital registers at least 160 cases of premature births every month, a figure that is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[58],"tags":[186520,186523,186522,186518,186519,186524,134971,186521,153],"class_list":["post-390508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uganda","tag-daniel-mukasa-ddamulira","tag-masaka-city-mayor","tag-sotius-ssegawa","tag-consultant-pediatrician","tag-dr-mary-nyantaro","tag-florence-namayanja","tag-masaka-regional-referral-hospital","tag-rotary-club-of-masaka","tag-uganda"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/117139755147856904","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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