{"id":36338,"date":"2025-06-06T10:04:47","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T08:04:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onecitizendaily.com\/?p=36338"},"modified":"2025-06-06T10:04:47","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T08:04:47","slug":"health-ministry-msf-launch-neonatal-ward-in-aweil-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/06\/health-ministry-msf-launch-neonatal-ward-in-aweil-hospital\/","title":{"rendered":"Health Ministry, MSF launch neonatal ward in Aweil Hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Philip Buda Ladu<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u00a0Ministry of Health in partnership with M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res (MSF), on June 4, 2025, officially opened a new 40-bed neonatal inpatient ward at Aweil State Hospital.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This significant development aims to vastly improve medical care for sick, low birth weight, and premature babies in Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal State.<\/p>\n<p>In a press statement extended to this outlet MSF said the state-of-the-art facility replaces the previous 33-bed neonatal ward, which frequently suffered from severe overcrowding, often accommodating over 45 infants at a time, and lacked adequate space for critical interventions like resuscitation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We had a neonatal ward, but it was always full or over its capacity,&#8221; stated Denis Mbae, MSF project coordinator for Aweil. &#8220;This new building, which is also closer to the maternity ward, will limit the distance that mothers have to walk to breastfeed their babies, while holding better equipment and amenities.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The newly constructed ward boasts increased capacity and an improved design, providing essential space for incubators and life-support equipment crucial for vulnerable infants whose vital organs may not be fully developed.<\/p>\n<p>A dedicated area for Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) will also facilitate skin-to-skin contact, a proven method for improving health outcomes for low-birth-weight infants.<\/p>\n<p>As the only specialized unit of its kind in the state, the new ward offers a more spacious environment designed to enhance infection prevention, improve patient monitoring, and create better working conditions for staff.<\/p>\n<p>The medical charity organization underscored that consolidating neonatal care under one roof will also allow for more effective follow-up and monitoring of patients.<\/p>\n<p>MSF has been a vital partner to Aweil State Hospital since 2008, providing paediatric and maternity services in a region where limited peripheral health services and transportation challenges often hinder access to timely medical care.<\/p>\n<p>In 2024 alone, MSF noted that it assisted in the delivery of 7,664 babies at the hospital.<\/p>\n<p>This significant upgrade highlighted MSF\u2019s unwavering commitment to enhancing healthcare access and improving outcomes for vulnerable families across South Sudan.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Philip Buda Ladu &nbsp; \u00a0Ministry of Health in partnership with M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res (MSF), on June 4, 2025, officially opened a new 40-bed neonatal inpatient ward at Aweil State Hospital. This significant development aims to vastly improve medical care for sick, low birth weight, and premature babies in Northern<a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/06\/health-ministry-msf-launch-neonatal-ward-in-aweil-hospital\/\">[Read More&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":36339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Exterior-view-of-the-newly-inaugurated-40-bed-neonatal-ward-at-Aweil-State-Hospital.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36338"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36340,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36338\/revisions\/36340"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}