Chijioke Iremeka Maternal health experts have decried the lack of essential equipment needed to support preterm babies and called for increased investment in life-saving facilities. They noted that, aside from major Federal and state government-owned facilities, it was difficult to find this live-saving equipment in many rural communities which significantly impacts the survival rates of preterm infants. The gynaecologists emphasised that many Primary Health Centres in the country, designed to serve rural communities and bring healthcare services closer to the people, lack necessities such as electricity, incubators, and ventilators.
This shortfall, they said, severely impacts the survival chances of preterm babies in these facilities. The physicians stressed that the absence of these life-saving tools in PHCs and other hospitals across the country had contributed to higher mortality rates among preterm infants and called for increased investment from stakeholders to improve these facilities. According to the World Health Organisation, preterm birth is defined as the birth of a baby before 37 weeks of pregnancy are completed.
The WHO categorises preterm birth into sub-groups based on gestational age: extremely preterm (less than 28 weeks), very preterm (28 to less than 32 weeks), and moderate to late preterm (32 to 37 weeks). In 2020, the WHO estimated that 13.4 million babies were born preterm, representing more than one in ten births, while 900,000 children died in 2019 due.