A revamp of Mthatha Hospital’s neonatal unit is giving more babies a better chance at life.
The number of beds has increased from 16 to 25, and there is some state-of-the-art new equipment too.
Another aspect of the upgrade is a new isolation ward for babies with infections.
Also, the number of beds in the neonatal intensive care unit (ICU) has gone from four to eight, said CEO Nomalanga Makwedini.
Another welcome upgrade is an overall security beef-up, including a new biometric system to control access.
To make the new beds possible, space was borrowed from redundant storage units in the neighbouring maternity ward, with an old office being converted into the isolation ward.
The renovations, which commenced in March and were completed in July, cost R11.4m.
The new ward became operational at the beginning of September.
Makwedini said the hospital caters for around 3.2 million people from the OR Tambo, Alfred Nzo, Chris Hani and Amathole district municipalities.
“It was not fair to say that because a baby weighs less than one kilogram that baby has less chance of survival and we will not take them.
“That is the reason that we upgraded the unit,” she said.
“What is important to note is that in the north-eastern region [of the province] there is no tertiary hospital other than this one.
“This is the only place where pregnant mothers can get this service.
“The other hospitals are small district hospitals which have no neonatal ICU.
“This is why we had to renovate and expand the size of our neonatal unit and high care, because whether the baby is born in Lusikisiki or even as far as Mbizana, more than 230km away, they come to us.”
Makwedini said another reason for the renovations was an increase in the incidence of certain diseases among pregnant women in the area.
For instance, a large number of mothers-to-be suffered from pregnancy-induced hypertension.
This condition is called pre-eclampsia or eclampsia.
The Pre-Eclampsia Foundation defines it as a disorder that occurs during pregnancy or the immediate post-partum period, affecting both the mother and the baby.
Symptoms include high blood pressure, protein in the urine, oedema (tissue swelling caused by water retention), headaches and lower back pain.
It usually occurs between week 28 and week 32 of the pregnancy.
Treatment includes administering magnesium sulphate.
Makwedini said pre-eclampsia put pregnant women at risk of seizures and babies of being born prematurely.
These little newborns are almost always less than 2kg, some even as tiny as 800g.
A normal healthy newborn weighs between 2kg and 4kg.
These are the babies who need the neonatal unit.
“So we usually have these very sick babies who do not yet have mature lungs.
“Pregnancy-induced hypertension is very high in the OR Tambo region, but as yet we are not sure why. We need to come up with a study to investigate this. The numbers show that it’s very high among first-time mothers particularly,” she said.
“There are also those women who experience various problems with carrying their babies to term, while some women come down with infections,” Makwedini added.
“Whatever the issue is, in order to save the life of both the mother and the child, we have to extract the baby. We have these babies which are born before time and we have to keep them alive.”
Because of the care provided at the neonatal unit, Makwedini said, the survival rate in such cases was higher.
She said on average, babies weighing over 1kg at birth had a 70% chance of survival while at 900g it dropped to 50%.
The unit, led by Dr Martha Mayer, has a staff complement of 63.
This includes nurses, neurologists, a paediatrician and medical officers...