Deal with devastating conditions of preterm babies – Activist

A health practitioner at work

The Executive Director and Founder of Jay Foundation, Madam Naa Kuorkor Mayne- Eghan has called on government and stakeholders to prioritise the well-being of premature babies.

Lamenting this heart-wrenching ordeal to The Spectator, Naa Kuorkor indicated that there was struggle to keep preterm babies alive at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), where they needed special interven­tions to help them survive.

Enumerating some of the challeng­es faced, she identified the inade­quate equipment and limited space in NICU as ones that must be ad­dressed to reduce the high infection rate among them.

Using the founda­tion as the mouth­piece for preterm babies, she encour­aged stakeholders and individuals to support the fragile babies deliv­ered before the 37th week of pregnancy.

“These babies would need specialised health personnel in the field of neonatal care at NICU to make them survive the life they’re already battling with,” she added.

Naa Kuorkor called on donors, individu­als, stakeholders and government to create an enabling environ­ment for preterm babies to survive by providing the neces­sary equipment and structures to support their survival.

She urged them to come up with pragmatic policies that would favour neonatal healthcare delivery across the coun­try and be treated as a public health concern.

She also urged the society to stop pointing fingers at women that gave birth prematurely by tagging them as a sign of bad omen.

She explained that, it was a health condition and as such mothers with preterm babies should be given the utmost care and support to help take care of the babies.

“I urge all Ghanaians to help in their own little ways to help create a safer haven for neonates because preterms lives matter and are Gha­na’s next future leaders,” she stated.

 By Alfred Ankrah