As Uganda joined the rest of the world to mark the world prematurity day this week, tjat is commemorated on 17th November every year, the Nile post visited Toto ward at Mbarara regional referal hospital.
The ward that is the current Neonatal Intensive care Unit with 55 preterm babies under critical care.
In a block divided into sections of Preterm babies, term babies, Kangaroo, with higher temperatures fit for the battling little lives, you leave your shoes at the door way. Very hot in there.
Eyes on a tall young man preparing his premature baby boy into a diaper and massaging the baby's feet was Patrick Mugyenyi, a resident of Rubirizi district whose baby was born at 6 months.
The teary Mugyenyi narrates that 4th September they have so far spent 2 months and three weeks at the hospital.
"We delivered the premature baby. It was the fourth September, so this year. So now two months and three weeks here in premature ward, so we have got some difficulties in this situation" Mugyenyi said.
"The Baby was born at six months. So you see, I'm not happy, as am I'm talking. There is a complication the baby has" He added.
Mugenyi is not alone, sarah Amumpaire, a resident of Rwanyamahembe, Bwizibwera Mbarara district gave birth to a premature baby on the october 23rd 2025 at Bwizibwera health center iv at 6 months and was referred to Mbarara regional referal hospital.
"I gave birth to my baby at 6 months and I was refered here at referal. This baby is my third born and it's the first time I am giving birth to a premature" Amumpaire said.
Louise Kyalisiima a mother of premature twins that were born at 27 weeks and are now seven years shares a story of hope that prompted her start an organisation to support mothers who give birth to premature babies.
"I am a mother of preterm twins. I gave birth to the preterm twins at 27 weeks, the second twin was below one kilogram, and the first twin was one kilogram. I spent three months in hospital with the second twin, and I went through a very hard time emotionally" Kyalisiima said.
"And right now, the twins are seven years, and that makes me really happy as a mother. So I started leeds Support Center for prematures and we are there to support mothers, emotionally, physically, counseling. We do follow up visits. We visit them from hospital. She added.
Speaking to the Nile Post, Flora Habyara a nurse at Neonatal Intensive care Unit NICU at Mbarara regional referal hospital noted that the ward is divided into three sections for proper monitoring of the improvement of the babies.
" So our ward has neonates and preterm babies. Those who come in from maternity ward up here and those who come in from different hospitals that have been referred here. We have three sections, We have our NICU that has very sick babies who come in with hospital distress. They need oxygen support, our small preterms that need warmth, then we have another section for stable term." Habyara said.
Habyara shares that the sections depend on the stability of the baby and currently the NICU ward has 55 babies under care.
"For our preterm babies that have stabilized, they are breathing well, they can pick warmth. They don't need to depend on the warmers. They are able to feed to take them to the stable preterm" Habyara said.
"currently, today, we have a total number of 55 babies all in these three units. Our first unit has 25 then the rest are in the other units" she added.
Government through the support from the world Bank has invested in a new state of the art Neonatal Intensive care Unit NICU at Mbarara regional referal hospital a four floor building with equipment worth shs. 4 billion already at site. Dr. Erias Kumba Kumba, the head of pediatrics at Mbarara regional referal hospital notes that about 100 nurses will be required to run the unit as well as biomedical engineers.
"We need a minimum of 100 nurses to run this building and the services that we need that's quite heavy, and we hope that we right now, we should see that we have only eight nurses, three of them are supported by the government, and four or five of them are supported by the different projects that we write, and that means that 8 nurses alone cannot run that unit" Dr. Kumba Kumba said.
"We've already, so far, invested close to 4.5 billion shillings in the equipment that is in there. Very high level equipment where we need good maintenance services. And the biomedical engineers is casting in terms of presence in the in these units" He added.