NICU Training Helps Ukrainian Doctors Save 17 oz. Infant
At just over a pound, few expected newborn Bohdan to survive. His mother, Alyona arrived at the Zhytomyr Maternity Hospital after her water had broken and gave birth soon after.
 |
Baby Bohdan prepares to go home with his father
Photo Credit: Zhurnal Zhytomyra |
Fortunately for Bohdan, the hospital had been working with USAID’s Maternal Infant Health Project (MIHP) since 2003. Through MIHP, Zhytomyr doctors received rigorous knowledge and skills training on effective perinatal care and World Health Organization birthing practices. Appropriate resuscitation skills, evidence-based interventions and effective Neonatal Intensive Care Unit care learned through MIHP helped Bohdan’s doctors to save his life.
“When I saw my son for the first time, he was so tiny he could fit on my palm. He was so weak that I was ready for the worst. But doctors kept fighting for the baby’s life. I was praying to God to keep my son alive. Thanks to God and the doctors, Bohdan’s state is stable now and we can finally take him home,” said Alyona while journalists visited her as she was being discharged from the intensive care unit in July 2007.
Today, Bohdan is in good health, meeting the specific growth and development benchmarks for a normal eight-month-old baby.
Bodhan is the first infant born weighing less than 500 grams known to survive in Ukraine. In fact, before the January 2007 adoption of a law stating that all babies born less than 500 grams are to be considered as live births, low-weight infants who survived fewer than seven days were regarded as miscarriages or abortions, not deaths.
As a result of its successes, Zhytomyr Maternity Hospital has evolved into a training center for other MIHP sites in Ukraine.
Back to Top ^ |
