A chance to breathe: How life-saving incubators are transforming newborn care in Somalia

MOGADISHU, Somalia – “I didn’t know if she would make it.” When Faduma Mohamed gave birth to her daughter at Banadir Hospital in Mogadishu, the silence that followed was terrifying. Her premature daughter was tiny, underweight and barely breathing. 

The doctors quickly transferred her to the neonatal intensive care unit, a place Faduma feared her newborn might not return from.

Just months earlier, she might not have; the hospital’s newborn intensive care unit was severely under-resourced, lacking essentials such as incubators and oxygen support machines. Too many mothers had faced similar situations to Faduma’s, watching their babies struggling to survive simply because the necessary equipment wasn't available. 

“When my daughter was placed in the incubator and given oxygen, her condition began to improve,” Faduma told UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive agency, which supports the hospital. “We’re both doing well now.”

“Now we can save them”

Despite maternal death rates dropping by 50 per cent over the past twenty years in Somalia, too many pregnant women struggle to access essential health services. Only 30 per cent of public health facilities are fully functional and can provide emergency obstetric and neonatal care, and around one in 20 women die during pregnancy and childbirth; just one third of births are attended by trained professionals. 

Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim Salad, Head of the Newborn Care Department, explained that the recent arrival of maternal and newborn health equipment allows more babies to receive the critical care they desperately need in their first few hours.

With funding from Saudi Arabia through KSrelief, new incubators, heaters, oxygen supply units and monitoring tools have enabled the hospital to add four new neonatal care units.

“Now hundreds of Somali newborns, especially from families who cannot afford private hospitals, can benefit,” said Dr. Salad. “We used to have to turn them away. Now we can save them.”

And the impact extends beyond newborn care: Poor lighting and the lack of an anaesthesia machine at the Banadir and Dayniile Hospitals in Mogadishu meant pregnant women and new mothers often endured agonizing waits for surgeries, including obstetric fistula repairs.

“We couldn’t properly anaesthetize them,” explained Dr. Ahmed, a senior surgeon at the Dayniile Hospital. “There were many crisis situations where we couldn’t stabilize patients.”  

Now, with modern equipment, new operating beds and improved lighting, doctors can respond swiftly and safely. “We can finally do procedures we couldn’t before,” said Dr. Ahmed.

A daughter's breath, a mother's hope

In the maternity ward, head midwife Nimca Mohamed Badane oversees a row of radiant warmers that help to ensure newborns remain stable. She recalled how hypothermia used to claim many new lives. “We now save over 99 per cent of preterm babies.” 

For Faduma and her daughter, this equipment represents more than just a technical upgrade – it’s the difference between despair and hope.

“I will never forget how I felt,” said Faduma, her gaze fixed on her daughter. “But now, every time I hear her breathing, I know she’s here because someone cared enough to help us.”

Lack of funding threatens women and newborns’ survival 

New UNFPA data show that between 2000 and 2023, global maternal deaths dropped by 40 per cent – yet more than 700 women still die every day from preventable causes during pregnancy and childbirth. In Somalia, which is beset by climate crises, conflict and chronic underfunding, the progress made so far in helping more women and newborns survive childbirth is at risk of being halted by drastic funding cuts. 

For midwife Maryama Mohamed Isse, who works at a maternal healthcare centre in a camp for displaced people in the Dayniile district of Mogadishu, the perilous situation pregnant women are in from the lack of resources has been brought sharply home. 

“One of the most discouraging moments in my work is when patients urgently seek treatment, but we lack the medical supplies to help them properly,” she told UNFPA. 

“In those moments, I feel hopeless but still try to offer support with my own resources. When a mother comes to you and you can’t afford her medicines, you can feel how painful it is.”

In a call to keep the lights on for women and girls in some of the world’s most neglected crises, in 2025 UNFPA needs $45 million to keep providing life-saving services in Somalia, but has received just 3 per cent of this. The needs remain immense, and continued support is vital to ensure more mothers like Faduma can hear the first cries of their newborns.