Mumspring Foundation inaugurates project to reduce neonatal mortality

By Adaku Onyenucheya

TO address the ever-increasing rate of neonatal mortality in Nigeria, the Mumspring Foundation has launched ‘The Genesis Project” – an outreach programme which began last year at the Ikoyi-obalende Local Council Development Authority (LCDA), providing safe birth kits that meets the World Health Organization’s (WHO) standard for ensuring a hygienic and infection-free childbirth to 150 women.

The neonatal period is the interval between 28 completed weeks of gestation and the first completed week after birth. This is a very delicate period for both mother and baby. Thus, with the low numbers of births occurring in health facilities, low numbers of birth attended to by trained healthcare service providers, distance to healthcare facilities and many other factors access to healthcare, about five hundred newborns die in Nigeria alone.

Mumspring Foundation was inaugurated in 2018 by Mumspring to address the issue of neonatal mortality in Nigeria.

According to the WHO, Nigeria in the past few years has experienced the worsening of child mortality. As at 2003, two thirds of births occurred at home without the right medical equipment.

In 2016, neonatal death rates rose to 34 per cent, making Nigeria one of the countries with the highest rates of neonatal mortality in the world. More than the estimated one million children that die under the age of five years annually, die during the first 28 days of life.

Mumspring, in a press statement said it, is committed to providing easy access to the best baby products, while leading the way for socially conscious businesses, ensuring that by 2030, neonatal mortality will be reduced to 3.4 per thousand live births or less.

Although being in existence as an online store for the past two years, Mumspring recently launched a physical store containing the best curation of baby products in Lekki, Lagos.

Mumspring claims to be the premier concierge for expectant parents, offering convenient access to maternity and baby items such as nursery sets, baby gyms, skincare products, diaper bags, car seats, breast pumps and many more at competitive prices.