This month, October, we already got 4 small new born baby's, brought to Amecet. Four sad stories and we are thankful that we can help those little one's. The first two, were Doreen and Emmanuel. They were both born on the same day, both lost their mother after the delivery.
Doreen was born on October 6, in the early morning hours...She was born at home and her mother died after the delivery, before there was a chance to get help... There are 6 other children at home. There is now a family with 7 children, without a mother....
Doreen didn't want to drink in the beginning, we had to feed her by NG tube, but she started to drink after 2 days by herself. She is doing well. Her weight was 2.8 kg.
This is baby Emmanuel, he was born on the same day as Doreen, only at the end of the afternoon. He was brought on October 7 to Amecet. He was born in a Health centre in the village and it went without problems, but the placenta didn't come out, so Emmanuel and his mother were brought to the Hospital in Soroti. The mother had lost too much blood and she passed away. The family asked our help for the little boy, his weight was 2.3 kg.
Emmanuel had also some difficulties with drinking, but he is doing well now.
On Saturday, October 15, our social worker got a phone call from the Police. They asked our help, some people brought a small new-born baby to them, the mother had a mental problem and gave birth on the road. They didn't know the lady and the lady ran away, leaving the baby behind. People brought the baby to the Police and so did Aron came to Amecet.
Aron is very small, he is a premature baby, his weight is only 1.5 kg. We took him directly to the doctor and he was started on IV antibiotics, because he was born at the roadside, that is not a very clean environment. We also started him on medicines that will slow down the growth of HIV virus. We do not know if the mother is HIV+ or not. When Emma is one month old, we can test him for HIV. We have Aron in a separate room, where we keep him warm and we feed him via the NG tube, because he is too weak to suck himself.
On Friday we got a phone call from the Hospital, there was a small baby, whose mother had passed away in the hospital. I went to the hospital, together with the nurse of Amecet. The baby was kept in a special neonatal room. It was a little girl and she was on oxygen. I spoke with the doctor, he felt that the baby should at least stay in this special room till Sunday. I agreed and we promised to come back on Sunday to pick her. I spoke with the family, who also agreed and they were very thankful that we want to care for the little girl. The family left with the body of the mother, back to the village, to bury her, while the grandmother stayed behind to sit with the baby.
Today, Sunday, we went back to the hospital, we got the discharge forms and instructions from the doctor and we brought the baby to Amecet. Her name is Elizabeth, (after her mother) and her weight is 1.9 kg. She was not fed with milk since her birth on Thursday, so she drank well. She is also a small baby, but much bigger than Aron.
You can imagine that the arrival of those 4 new-born baby's brings a lot of work. We have to be very alert, because they are so small. We appreciate your prayers for all four of them and for the staff, they need to be very patient when they feed them.
We might get a fifth new-born baby this week, Saturday, a pastor of a small church in Soroti came to Amecet. He told us the story of a young girl (17 years) who has a mental problem, she came months ago to their church, she stayed in the church, because she had no home. They don't know where she came from, they felt pity for her. It appeared that she was pregnant, and she gave birth in the church on Friday. She can't look after the baby, so he came to us for help. We referred him to go first to Probation Office or the Police. We will follow this up the coming week.
We are grateful that we can minister to those little baby's, who should have been in the arms of their mothers. The four stories are sad, but we are thankful that we can hold those baby's in our arms and that we can give them the feeding, care and love they need.
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