Mothers and prematurely born babies are celebrated
GLEN AUSTIN – Mothers were given some goody hampers filled with baby products to take home.
Life Carstenhof Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit was filled with the colour purple as they paid homage to their little miracle babies on World Prematurity Day (Premmie Day).
Staff, nurses, and doctors spent the day celebrating the prematurely born babies and their mothers on November 17.
The day is a worldwide movement to raise awareness of premature birth and the devastating impact it can have on families at times.
Dr Rebecca Makate of the unit said the day was all about celebrating prematurely born babies, meaning all babies who were born before 37 weeks of pregnancy. Makate added that they wanted to highlight and celebrate the mothers’ and babies’ bravery, their survival and also wanted to honour all their nurses who have been going all out to see to it that the newborns were doing well.
“We decided to celebrate the mothers as well by thanking them for putting their trust in us because we have mothers who stay with us for more than two to three months.
“So, today we, therefore, thank them for their support and opening their hearts to us as we do this difficult job,” Makate added.
Makate said the mothers were given hampers that they could use to bathe and moisturise their babies, including information that could help them understand prematurity and be used to nurture their babies.
Nthabiseng Mokubane, who is now a happy mother of two after recently giving birth to a ‘premmie’ baby girl, shared her experience.
“Even though the doctors and nurses tried to explain the situation to me, it felt like putting what was in a book into practicality, two totally different things.
“It was a very emotional journey. The hardest 72 days of my life. However, through each and every process, the nurses and doctors would explain and give me constant feedback whenever I wanted to know how my baby was doing,” she concluded.
Details: Life Carstenhof Hospital 011 655 5500.
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