Newborns’ Lives Saved in Sancti Spiritus, Cuba

Of the 1 150 babies admitted in the neonatology ward of Sancti Spiritus maternity hospital last year, only eight couldn’t make it.

When you observe little babies inside incubators you may have doubts about what could happen. It’s only when you see the prodigies performed that you’re able to breathe a sign of relieve: of the 1 150 babies admitted in the neonatology ward of Sancti Spiritus maternity hospital until the end of December last year, only eight couldn’t make it.

There’s plenty of efforts inside that hospital ward, where doctors and nurses fight a constant battle to save lives. Statistics can help assess their commitment: three children were born weighing less than 1 000 grams —one of them passed away—, while 24, out of the 27 who weighted fewer than 1 500 grams, were saved.

According to General Integral Medicine and Neonatology experts Manuel López Fuente and Migdiala Soria Díaz —the latter also head of the neonatology services at the provincial maternity hospital— low birth weight has been one of the pathologies which has required hospitalization. 242 infants born underweight (less than 2 500 grams) have been admitted, 98 per cent of whom have survived.

Among the causes of those extreme weights, experts signalled out preterm births, preeclampsia, toxaemia, and sepsis during pregnancy, in addition to gestation in adolescent and mature women.

The doctors also highlighted the training and skills of the medical staff in charge of the infants, which have been crucial for their proper recovery.