“My Twins Were Saved Thanks to Skin-to-Skin Contact.”
With funding from the Government of Korea, UNICEF is promoting the Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) to save children born prematurely or with low birth weights, in the East and Adamaoua Regions in Cameroon.
In the Meiganga health district, found in the Adamaoua Region in Cameroon, mothers are still highly exposed to the risk of poor care for children born prematurely or with low birth weights, due to the inadequate supply of neonatal care services. Many of these women do not receive proper prenatal and post-partum care in hospitals. Moreover, a considerable number are unaware of the beneficial effects of the Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) method, which consists of putting infants born before term skin-to-skin to ensure their healthy growth. These facts endanger almost a thousand children born each year in this health facility.
Hasanatou is the mother of twins Ousseni and Halmata who experienced the benefits of the KMC method.
“When my twins were born, I was not ready at all, I wasn’t expecting them yet. They arrived earlier than we thought”, says the young mother. The two children were born when she was only 7 months pregnant, each weighing 1kg 400g. They were too small, which made Hasanatou anxious and tearful.
The twins were quickly examined by the doctor and identified, then placed on their mother’s chest, where she could feel them. Her feeling of anxiety was automatically mixed with indescribable joy.
“I could finally feel my babies in my arms. That moment, even if it only lasted a minute, was the most beautiful part of the whole experience”, she tells us, as she looks down at the peacefully sleeping babies.
Immediate improvement
The mother’s warm contact with her babies was one of the factors that led to an immediate improvement in their breathing, and there was no need to add oxygen. For 9 days, with the help of her sister, she used the kangaroo pouches donated by UNICEF to practice this method relentlessly. By the end of this time, Halmata had reached 1kg500, while the stronger Ousseni weighed in at 1kg600. This rapid weight gain led to the health staff’s decision to let them leave the hospital to continue practising the skin-to-skin method in the community.
“I had not yet heard of this method. I was made aware of it when I was losing all hope for the survival of my children. I later realized that saving them was still possible. Today, I am convinced that this is what saved my twins”, Hasanatou continues to proclaim.
To save more lives, particularly those of premature or low-birth-weight babies, UNICEF, thanks to Korean funding, has trained health personnel in the Ngaoundere regional hospital’s neonatology departments in the care and resuscitation of newborn babies, and in the Kangaroo mother care. With these funds, mothers will soon benefit from a better quality of care thanks to the distribution and installation of newly acquired equipment in health facilities, including incubators for very premature babies, phototherapy devices, oxygen nebulizers, water distillers and other equipment likely to reduce the number of newborn deaths due to lack of oxygen, including those of their mothers.
“The advice I received during my first experience with the kangaroo method meant a lot to me and brought change in our family by bringing us closer, as for example I received help from my sister. I feel more connected to my children. Housseni and Hamlata are doing well and enjoy playing with one another, to the delight of our entire family,” concludes Hasanatou.
