Last month marks a meaningful milestone for the Lion Heart Medical Centre with the official opening of our Neonatal Care Unit, a dedicated space providing specialised care for newborn babies who need extra medical attention during their first days of life. The first 28 days of life (the neonatal period) are the most fragile time for a child. There are very few of these units in Sierra Leone, and we have been wishing to set up our own for a long time.
This project would not have been possible without the support of many of you! It came to life after the successful Christmas Crowdfunding campaign ‘Start Them Right!’, which was held in December 2023, raising more than €20.000,-. As a result, we were able to reorganize and refurbish our Maternity Ward, with the aim to improve the Labor Room and to construct a small Neonatal Care Unit. In coordination with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, our maternity staff received specialized training, and we worked towards the official opening.
In the Neonatal Care Unit, our clinicians, midwives and nurses work together to support vulnerable newborns through close observation, heightened infection prevention measurements, temperature regulation, feeding support, oxygen support, and emergency care. It is equipped with three beds, an incubator, a resuscitation table, oxygen concentrators, infusion pumps, and phototherapy lights (blue lights for babies with newborn jaundice).
The birth of a child brings joy and hope. But for some parents, that joy quickly turns to anxiety when a baby is born prematurely, with low birth weight, breathing difficulties, an infection, or other complications requiring immediate specialised care. Until now, access to such care was limited or required transfer to distant facilities. The launch of our Neonatal Unit brings this critical care closer to home. Hospital leadership described the unit as “an investment in life, hope, and the future of our community.”