A Newborn's Resilience, The Love of a Mother, and The Commitment of a Team
By Maternal Health Consultant and Midwife, Leesha Mafuru
It was the morning of October 4th when Halima walked into our new maternity center carrying a tiny package bundled up in a colorful fabric, her newborn baby. She had a preterm delivery at another hospital in the area — not one baby, not twins, but triplets! Her triplets were very premature, born at only 27 weeks. Survival at 27 weeks is rare, not only in Tanzania, but even in developed countries. Sadly, by the time Halima decided to come to FAME, two of the triplets had already passed away.
The moment they arrived, FAME's nurses and doctors jumped into action, admitting Baby Patricia to our Special Care Nursery (SCN). She weighed only 1.98 lbs., but was clearly a fighter. These babies are known as micro-preemies and carry a huge risk for complications and mortality. Our Special Care Nursery is not equipped to provide the level of care typically necessary to save babies this fragile. However, there is a high-level NICU in Arusha that specializes in these cases (the only one in the country), so after stabilizing and evaluating Baby Patricia, our doctors recommended a transfer there. Despite being the best option for Baby Patricia, the cost of care there was simply beyond the family’s reach. They decided to stay at FAME and to reconsider only if Patricia’s health changed.
FAME doctors and nurses kept watch over Baby Patricia as if she were their own, monitoring her feedings, fluids, temperature and oxygen levels 24 hours a day. In order to help her breathe, she was put on CPAP, a machine she stayed on for 6 weeks. It was a very steep learning curve for our team, and the NICU specialists in Arusha graciously provided consultation and advice every step of the way, as did a FAME volunteer pediatrician. Slowly but surely Patricia's weight started to increase and Halima was able to start doing skin-to-skin Kangaroo Care, expressing milk every two hours around the clock and learning how to feed Patricia through her oral feeding tube.
As the days and weeks went by, her breathing became stronger and stronger, requiring smaller and smaller whiffs of oxygen along the way. The time spent skin-to-skin with her Mom only added to her amazing resilience. The team excitedly watched the thermostat on the incubator get lower and lower as Patricia’s own body developed some fat stores and was able to maintain its own temperature. Even her tiny little cheeks began to fill out. And then she reached 32 weeks or 8 months gestational age and began to suckle at the breast!
To her mother’s great joy, she was a champion nurser from the start. After weaning off the oxygen altogether, she graduated out of the nursery and into Kangaroo Care alone. Within just a few days days, Baby Patricia was finally ready to go home, weighing a healthy 5.6 lbs.
In the end, Halima and Baby Patricia were with us for two full months. For the FAME team, it was an enormous milestone — one that illustrates the power of teamwork, compassionate care, and commitment to learning. For this mother and family, there was no greater gift FAME could have given than to help this little one beat the odds and get to go home in her mother’s arms in time for Christmas.
We are so grateful to our supporters and friends for enabling FAME to have the resources and staff to care for Baby Patricia, the fragile but mighty little human who needed us. Be blessed this holiday season, in the New Year and always!
Note: Names of mother and baby have been changed to protect privacy