In the month of January 21 babies were enrolled in our program. Nine mothers died leaving healthy newborns without breast milk (two of these women had had twins). One set of triplets was enrolled, 4 mothers unable to produce breast milk brought their babies for enrollment, one set of twins were abandoned at the hospital and enrolled, and one baby whose mother developed postpartum psychosis and was unable to care for him. A total of 219 babies are currently enrolled. One hundred and twenty of our babies need formula and nurses distributed a total of 676 tins this month. Nurses enrolled four additional postpartum women in our program (one with a history of a ruptured uterus and three with severe postpartum infections. Nurses visited 182 babies and 22 women.
Donations. Joyful Motherhood receives occasional donations from international and local donors. In the above picture nurses receive 300 tins of formula from Anne Mieke as well as clothes and toys. Additionally, this month, the community of Mid Deeside Church from Scotland sent several parcels of knitted woolen baby sweater and blankets, which are a big help during Malawi’s colder months.
Mother and Baby Admission. Eighteen-year-old Charity is one of the mothers whose baby was brought to Joyful Motherhood because she was not producing breast milk. Charity delivered a healthy boy in the hospital on December 27th. She and her baby boy were discharged home in stable condition but within three days Charity started to show signs of illness. She developed a fever and she complained that her entire body ached so her family accompanied her back to the hospital. Over the next three days her condition worsened and she was transferred three times until she reached the District Hospital. At that point she was very weak and was no longer able to feed her baby. She received a blood transfusion but her condition continued to deteriorate. Finally on January 22nd she underwent surgery there was no longer any hope in saving her uterus, the only hope and plan was to save her life and she had a total hysterectomy. Charity is recovering slowly though still weak. Both she and her baby are depending on the loving care of her family and the supplemental support from Joyful Motherhood.
