In Uganda, the newborn mortality ratio is 39 per 1,000 live births. In 2023, 141,000 children died.
That is seven times the rate in the United States and 10 times that of Canada.
In 2023, BAMA began a pilot project to adapt Hospital to Home (H2H), an innovative program launched by the Adara Group, an Australian-based non-profit working to improve critical care for sick and premature newborns in Uganda.
HOW IT WORKS
Hospital to Home (H2H) trains a corps on nurses and Community Health Workers in hospital-based care of at risk newborns, as well as supportive care for the first six months after discharge. Babies and Mothers Alive partners with four Newborn Care Intensive Care Units, three of which we have established over the past four years. Babies discharged from these units are followed for six months of home visits.
Through H2H we work with nurses to improve discharge planning, fully informing parents on the care of their newborns. We promote exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, as well as Kangaroo-Mother-Care , an essential practice shown to improve survival of babies in the first months of life. BAMA-trained Community Health Workers follow these babies for six-months with regularly scheduled home visits promoting practices that have been shown to improve early brain development.
BAMA’s H2H Program addresses the second delay in reaching care and third delay in high quality care.
MEET BENEFICIARIES AND AMBASSADORS
Watch this video as Beneficiary Grace and BAMA Ambassador Charles share their experiences and how they’ve dealt with the pre-mature baby.
OUR GOAL FOR THE NEXT 3-5 YEARS
Our goal over the next 3-5 years is to scale Hospital to Home, integrating this cost-effective program into the government health system and expanding its scope to all nine districts of the Masaka Region.