Doctors and nurses in Rwanda are not strangers to situations like these. Doctors and nurses often lack the training and equipment to identify problems and to save the baby\u2019s life if something goes wrong.<\/p>\n
But in Nyanza Hospital\u2019s bright new maternity ward, equipped with new essential medical equipment with support from UNICEF, there have been marked improvements in the number of mothers and children who survive premature deliveries.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used to have a very small space with questionable cleanliness,\u201d says Jeanne d\u2019Arc. \u201cBut now we have a lot of space and modern equipment, and well-trained nurses. These nurses are now able to shine in a crisis because they have the confidence and the proper equipment to save lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through UNICEF\u2019s partnership with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Nyanza Hospital is working with mentors from the United Kingdom who are training nurses and doctors in Rwanda. These mentors have also helped Nyanza Hospital improve their administration processes, developing well-maintained patient records and checklists for better follow-up care with new mothers.<\/p>\n
Esther Mukanyandwi lies in the maternity ward with her new baby, practicing Kangaroo Mother Care by keeping her baby wrapped closely to her body. \u201cMy child was born two months early and weighed only 1.3 kilograms,\u201d she says. \u201cI was sure she would die because there were many times when she stopped breathing, but the nurses were always able to resuscitate her.”<\/p>\n
Dr. Pascal Ngiruwonsanga, the Director-General of the hospital, has seen neonatal services drastically improve over the last two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can offer better health services now, and we have been able to rehabilitate old facilities,\u201d he said. \u201cWith the right medical equipment and competent staff, we can focus on resuscitation of newborns, infection prevention, and education for new parents.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope to see the number of child deaths reach zero in the few years ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
{{Source: UNICEF Rwanda}}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jeanne d\u2019Arc Utetiwabo is a doctor of neonatology in Nyanza Hospital. It is crowded, often with too many patients and too few doctors. Too many times, she has seen risky pregnancies result in babies born too early. Her team acts quickly to save the lives of these mothers, but prematurely born children are still fighting to survive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[75],"byline":[2950],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-40170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-unicef","tag-homenews","byline-cyriaque-ngoboka-veronica-houser"],"bylines":[{"id":2950,"name":"Cyriaque Ngoboka & Veronica Houser","slug":"cyriaque-ngoboka-veronica-houser","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2950,"name":"Cyriaque Ngoboka & Veronica Houser","slug":"cyriaque-ngoboka-veronica-houser","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40170"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=40170"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=40170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}