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In commemoration of this year’s World Prematurity Day, the Tiny Beating Hearts Initiative (TBHI) will launch a mobile app that will help save babies by being able to locate a hospital with incubators and neonatal services in time.
In a press statement signed by the Founder and Executive Director of the organization, Mrs Petra Akinti Onyegbule, the app will help parents save time and money but more importantly, give preterm babies a higher chance at being saved.
“According to Mamaye, 87,600 premature babies died in Nigeria in 2016 from lack of incubators and specialized devices which could have saved them. In Franca Osakwe’s feature for The Guardian on January 4, 2017, the story is told of a 31 year old mother who lost her baby born at 28 weeks and weighed 1.2 KG at birth. Baby Saheed died while his parents were moving from one place to the other in search of an incubator.
“On November 17, TBHI will be unveiling an app on we have developed to save babies by being able to locate a hospital with incubators and neonatal services in time. This way rather than move about looking for an incubator, you just call and be sure where to go. You save time and money and more importantly, give your preterm baby a higher chance at being saved.
“Yes, this is our reality. If it makes anyone feel better, the United States is also struggling to reduce the rate of prematurity too. They are 6th on the list of top 10 countries with the highest number of preterm births in the world as 517,400 are born preterm in the US; and that’s according to the World Health Organisation.
“In Nigeria, Tiny Beating Hearts Initiative is one of the organisations working hard round the clock and with very little resources to ensure we change the tide. One of the things we are doing is trying our best to save as many preterm babies as we can whilst we work on increasing awareness on preventing prematurity. Our latest project to be unveiled in 13 days will save more babies by helping parents save time and money while locating a hospital that can care for their tiny beating heart.
“The TBHI app basically has a list of hospitals with incubators and who offer neonatal services. With their phone numbers. We shall continue to update as we have more information. No one prepares to have a preemie. No one. It doesn’t matter if the possibilities of having one are glaring. We are in denial, so we hope for the best. By the time the baby comes before term, we are in confusion and we begin the search for a hospital that can take the baby in for special care. Sometimes the babies die while in the search.
“So with this app, we will be helping mothers or fathers or anyone searching for a medical facility with neonatal services to just check, call and be sure where they are going before even leaving wherever they are.
“Do you know what agony it is holding this tiny helpless frail human in your hands, going from one end of town to another in search of an incubator, getting rejected from one place to another, then you watch the life leave this little one, literally. You are there; helpless, praying, feeling frustrated. And then, silently, it’s all gone. They are mourned even before anyone knows they were here. It is sad. So sad. And torturous. And depressing.
“Since technology has become such a huge part of our lives why not use it to save babies born preterm from dying? It is not their fault now, is it? It may not be our fault too that we have babies before term. But it could be our fault if we do not do all we can to save them from dying.
“Hopefully, this app will help us get closer to where we want to be – a Nigeria where preemies do not have to die because we did not know what to do or did not care enough to do it,” she said.
TBHI is an organization which centres around prevention of prematurity, advocacy to reduce prematurity and deaths arising from complications of prematurity and support for premature babies.
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