A pre-term or pre mature baby is one born before 37weeks. There are more pre-term babies today because of the increase in the number of women giving birth and the growing population. This is due to the increase in teenage pregnancies and the number of career women, who have babies after 40 years.

Also ignorance and inaccessibility of regular antenatal care have contributed to the rise…resulting in pre-mature labour.

The increase in pre-term birth is because more mothers are delivering in health facilities, making it possible for medical workers to care for them. According to 2012 data compiled at the Ministry of Health in Uganda, pre-mature births are the leading cause of admissions, constituting about 23% of all admissions.

Pre term birth (premature birth) complications are the leading cause of death in newborns in Uganda and they constitute over 37% at Uganda hospitals. The records at the health ministry of Uganda indicate that about 209,700 pre-term babies were born in 2012 alone and every year about 16,000 newborns in Uganda [40%] die as a result of pre-term complications.

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