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37-year-old woman stranded with triplets
Critical. Ms Prisca Nuwagaba with her triplets at Rugarama Hospital in Kabale Town. PHOTO BY ROBERT MUHEREZA
Kabale. A thirty-seven year old woman is stranded with two-month-old malnourished triplets at Rugarama Hospital in Kabale Town. The triplets are her 9th born.
The head of the hospital’s paediatric Department, Dr Rubahika K Ntabaare, said the mother who also looked malnourished was brought with malnourished triplets (two boys and one girl) on Friday seeking help. He said the mother could not afford breastfeeding the babies or buying food supplements for them.
Dr Rubahika said on Saturday the hospital management offered food supplements to the babies but the money was not enough to include the mother.
The two months old triplets are weighing about 2.8kg instead of about 4kg in normal situations.
The hospital management has offered to give special milk food supplement so that they can gain weight before they can be immunised. Since they were not immunized immediately after birth, Dr Rubahika said.
The mother of the triplets, Ms Prisca Nuwagaba, a resident of Bugarambiro Village in Muko Sub-county in Rubanda District said she had normal delivery at her home after local religious leaders prayed for her. The kids are Kakuru, Kato and Kanyima and they are her 9th born.
She already has two boys and six girls.
Ms Nuwagaba got married at the age of 15 shortly after dropping out of primary school in the late 1990s.
“I feared going for antenatal services at health centres because my colleagues in the village used to tell me that the health workers would laugh at the size of my stomach.
When the time for delivery approached, I invited religious leaders that prayed for me at night and the following day I delivered the triplets normally.
However, because cause of lack of enough breast milk my body is weak and the health of my children also is not good. I am happy that the administration here at Rugarama hospital have welcomed me and they have started feeding my children.
My husband, Mr Justus Turyamureba and I have no steady source of income,” Ms Nuwagba said.
She said all her previous children were immunized immediately after birth because she was a health centre.
