‘200,000 premature babies die annually in Nigeria’

Doctors from the National Hospital and higher institutions are working alongside us on our project. Asokoro, Maitama and Garki Hospitals have specialists who can care for these children, but we need more to be done there, especially on the awareness and attention that are given to premature babies. The government is involved in something called […]

Doctors from the National Hospital and higher institutions are working alongside us on our project. Asokoro, Maitama and Garki Hospitals have specialists who can care for these children, but we need more to be done there, especially on the awareness and attention that are given to premature babies.

The government is involved in something called partnership for maternal and newborn which was incorporated two years ago and it is doing very well. The Ministry of Health has recognised LBS and is partnering with us, because they realise the seriousness of this issue.

I just went for a two-day conference organised by the World Health Organisation and the Ministry of Health to analyse the impact of the partnership, what they have done and how they can do better. Within that, you’ll find that there is nothing. The aspects that are supposed to care for mother-child and newborn have nothing in terms of providing better facilities for their premature baby, which falls under that umbrella.  

Through LBS, we have been able to galvanise the thought process and gotten people to commune with the government clearly to get resources in that area. Apart from the equipment, we do our parental support programme. We go to the hospitals to see the mothers because we know they are going through a really difficult time. Many of these families are low-income earners.

Even though the issue of premature babies touches everyone across all social classes, if you are well-to-do, you have more liquidity to access resources and facilities to care for your child. But even at that, the upper class still experiences mortality. If you are having your baby in a hospital that lacks adequate facilities, money can’t buy the life of the child, because you have to make do with what is available to you there.

We’ve been able to give them care packages for their wellbeing and follow their progress to see how well the babies are doing.

We have now decided to incorporate celebrities like TuFace, Ali Baba, Praise Adejo (Project Fame) and Ngozi Ezeonu amongst others into our projects. We decided to key them into this course because they are celebrity ambassadors. For our advocacy, it is great to have these well-known faces as they are likely to motivate the public to participate and offer their services.

Asides the fact that they were premature, what other health problems did you identify with the babies?

The babies are born just too early. Asides these, they are literarily fine and just need the care. The main problems we see are infections and jaundice. These are a huge problem. They desperately need the right facilities. They need phototherapy lights to help treat the jaundice. They have lungs that are not mature as well as other vital organs and therefore the hospitals need to be better equipped than they are now.

Which of these was the most prevalent problem you came across: babies dying as a result of simply being premature due to lack of facilities or a lack of competent hands?

From what we have identified, we see a multitude of problems for the premature baby, but we have compartmentalised them into three main categories: Lack of equipment, updated care and specialists.

So it is a compound problem. For instance, in one of the hospitals we visited where they had a premature set of twins, we learned that one died. We are yet to ascertain what the cause of the death was. For now, we can’t say if it was from infection, fault of the staff, lack of equipment or anything else which may include one of the three.

There are places that don’t even have the equipment; the condition of any premature child born there can best be imagined. There are places that have equipment, but lack the technical know-how on the part of the staff. Then there are other places that lack the equipment and the staff to man them. The babies don’t even have the basic environment which gives them a chance at survival.

How do you plan to bring about change?

We are planning to have medical training programmes where we will be having doctors from abroad to come down to ensure the continuity of the care of these children, as well as give up-to-date training that is very necessary in this area, because it is special and needs commensurate attention.

I totally commend medical practitioners here and have had to work with many of them too. But with the quantum of care, where advancements have been made in other parts of the world, it is a question of making sure these progresses are transmitted and disseminated down here.

We will be working with doctors from Ghana and across the continent and from the West too. We believe that the exchange of thoughts and ideas will go a long way in fostering our purpose. Our trainings will be organised based on an analysis of the person in question and on a country analysis. Tiny Life of Ireland and the March of Dimes, the greatest prematurity body in the U.S. are working with us.

What is the state of LBS at the moment?

We have specific cases that we have worked on and are still working on across the country and in Ghana; although we are not launching that until March. We keep a data base of cases that we follow through while ensuring that they get the best available even after they are discharged.

How do you get funding?

So far, it has been through our personal resources and what we have been able to put together as founders, directors and members. We have had a wonderful response from people who are identifying with us and making contributions and pledges, which we are following through. Some of them were born premature and very keen on the course. We are hoping that individuals and corporate bodies will adopt us as their corporate charity for the year.

On February 11, we hope to have a celebrity dinner tagged ‘Loving and Caring Little Big Souls.’ It will be a night of music and entertainment and advocacy of the issue at hand. We’ll also be attending international conferences as well as other avenues through which we can be better empowered as we visit the rest of Nigeria to render help.

With a background in Law, what is the satisfaction for you in this?

It is the fact that we are doing all we can to make a difference in the lives of these vulnerable babies. There is something richly fulfilling when you are able to touch lives and make a difference.