By Rakiya A.Muhammad
Usually, the birth of a new life is a joyous occasion, but for some parents, the journey to arrival is fraught with peril, tinged with fear and anxiety. What if their precious treasures need extra care to survive?
In Sokoto State, Northwest Nigeria, opening a Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) at the State Specialist Hospital has brought relief and comfort to families, ensuring their ill newborns receive top-notch medical attention.
Many are delighted about this ray of hope in Sokoto, which has some of the highest rates of infant, newborn, and under-five mortality in Nigeria, classified in the top 20 countries with the highest infant mortality rate in 2023.
Despite global progress in reducing child mortality rates, increasing survival remains a pressing concern.
The United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UNIGME) 2023 Report on Levels and Trends in Child Mortality notes that the annual child mortality rates remain unacceptably high.
“Of the 4.9 million under-five deaths in 2022, 2.3 million occurred during the first month of life, and 2.6 million children died between the ages of 1 and 59 months,” according to the report.
“The lives of an additional 2.1 million children, adolescents, and youth ages 5–24 were also cut tragically short that year.”
“Between 2000 and 2022, the world lost 221 million children, adolescents, and youth.” That’s nearly the entire population of Nigeria, the sixth-largest country by population.”
Children under the age of five comprised 162 million of these lives lost, the report points out, adding neonatal deaths accounted for 72 million of those under-five deaths, while 91 million deaths occurred among children aged 1–59 months.
“We know how to save children’s lives: by scaling up high-impact interventions, such as skilled health personnel at birth, care for small and sick newborns, antenatal and postnatal care, preventive services such as vaccination, improved access to diagnosis and treatment of key causes of childhood illness and death, and efforts to reduce risk factors for mortality, such as malnutrition,” UNIGME highlights.
“These effective measures must become available to every child in every country and every community, rooted in a synergistic approach delivered through primary health care provided across the life course.”
For Sokoto, the UNICEF-supported Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) at the State Specialist Hospital is a lifeline, providing expert treatment and support to help these new borns and their families overcome the most challenging times.
Ms. Cristian Munduate, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, reveals that the SCBU offers high-quality, essential treatment to sick newborns.
“We provided high-technology equipment to this hospital for the neonatal unit and the necessary supplies for the unit to operate,” she further explains.
“This is exclusively for newborns who need immediate medical attention in incubators, having respiratory support because they cannot make it by themselves; they are children; time, hours, and minutes count; if not, we will lose them.”
The Chief Medical Director of the Specialist Hospital hails the initiative as a significant advancement.
He asserts that the hospital has highly skilled medical, health, and bioengineering professionals to ensure optimal operation.
“Sokoto, a state with a high infant mortality rate, now has the potential to reduce it to zero with the presence of this unit,” he declared, instilling a sense of optimism and hope in the people.
“It is an exceptional initiative that the state government has implemented in partnership with UNICEF; it will not only benefit the immediate area but also neighbouring states and other regions in Nigeria.”
Hajiya Asabe Balarabe, the health commissioner, commended UNICEF for the SCBU.
She promised to ensure appropriate and efficient unit use to realise its full benefits.
With the capacity to admit up to 1,000 newborns annually, the special care baby unit (SCBU) is projected to significantly contribute to child survival.
