VHTs trained on assisting mothers with premature babies

Mama Tulia, a charity organization has trained Village Health Teams (VHTs) in Makindye division on how to assist mothers look after premature babies.

Speaking during the training, Dr.Anita TumwebazeMuhumuza , the head of the neonatal section at Mulago Women and Neonatal hospital said VHTs play a critical role in linking the population to health facilities and that they come in handy to assist mothers with premature babies.

“Since you link the people to healthcare services, you need to look out for some of these families with prematures and link them to better health services,” Tumwebaze said.

“VHTs have a role to play in ensuring premature babies live life to the fullest. We lose new born babies every week and prematures are among them. Help families and communities look after premature babies.”

According Agnes Kirikumwino, the head nurse at the Mulago Kawempe Special Care Unit men too have a role to play in helping their wives look after premature babies.

“When your wife is looking after the premature baby, the man should do house chores. You need to support the mothers financially and emotionally. Provide financial contribution to the women so that they can be able to look after premature babies,” Kirikumwino said.

She noted that communities too have a role to play in supporting families with premature babies.

Isabelle Kavira Furaha, the founder of Mama Tulia said the training was meant to equip VHTs with skills to help families with prematures look after the babies.

“We thought it would be wise to engage VHTs because they are the first people that communities reach out to if in need of help. By equipping them, they will get skills on how to look after prematures and where to refer them if there are complex cases,”Furaha said.

She noted that by starting with Makindye East where they covered 20 zones, Mama Tulia which roll out the trainings in other parts of the country.

Speaking about the World Premature day celebrated on November,17 annual, Furaha said the organization will hold a series of activities meant to create awareness.

“This time we have decided to come down to communities to raise awareness about prematurity. Whereas some people think giving birth to a premature baby is a curse, we want to talk to them to change the belief and demystify several myths,” she said.

“We will mostly go out to slum areas since these are the most ignorant people about the condition of giving birth to premature babies. We want to equip them with knowledge on what to do.”