Started in 1999, Kalafong’s Kangaroo Mother Care unit is the oldest in the country. In that time, 3 902 infants have been through its doors. Of those, nearly half came to the unit with very low birth weights — less than 1 500g.
“They are high-risk infants and they need a lot of care,” said Dr Elise van Rooyen, the head of the unit. That care is given largely by the babies’ mothers themselves. There are medical benefits to this. “Because the mothers care for the babies, there are no nurses going from baby to baby spreading infection,” said Van Rooyen.
An added benefit is that, in the case of a nurse, each baby is one of many, but in the case of a mother, the baby is her only concern. Having mothers of vulnerable babies in the hospital in the care of nurses also provides a “captive audience”, said Van Rooyen.
While in the nurses’ care, the mothers were assisted with breastfeeding, general care and advised how to watch for signs of illness. “We are helping them to take care of their own babies. There’s a benefit to the community as well because they will know how to care for their next baby and the information will spread in the community as women speak to each other and tell their friends,” she said.
Because of the public sector workers’ strike, there are just a handful of women in the unit this week. They recline on scarce hospital beds or pace around the ward, their tiny babies strapped to their chests. The women wear wraps made from sturdy cloth.
They were designed and stitched by Van Rooyen, who sews all her own clothes. At 4pm, the mothers untie their babies from their chests and begin to feed them. Some are breastfed, others are fed expressed breastmilk from tiny plastic cups.
Salomie Sebopa unstraps her twin sons and lies one of them on the bed beside her while she feeds the other. A month after they were born, they still weigh about 1 500g. Her days are spent in a cycle of feeding and “kanga”, she says. It’s difficult, but she’s prepared to do anything for her children.
“I thought that maybe my children wouldn’t survive. I prayed every day to the Lord to help them. But now they’re growing. They’re alright,” she smiles.