Mothers at Spanish Town Hospital Get the ‘Right Start’

Forty mothers at the Spanish Town Hospital have benefited from a donation of much-needed maternal care supplies under the Ministry of Health and Wellness’ Right Start initiative.

The items, which include snuggle nests, portable infant lounger/beds, diapers, and skincare and hygiene products, were handed over by State Minister in the Ministry, Hon. Juliet Cuthbert Flynn, during a function at the St. Catherine-based hospital on Wednesday (April 5).

Right Start involves collaboration with the American Friends of Jamaica (AFJ) and the Jamaicans Abroad Helping Jamaicans at Home (JAHJAH) Foundation.

The initiative is targeting 2,000 vulnerable mothers, including teen mothers, as they access care through the public health system, providing them with a range of care supplies for their newborns and delivering improved diagnostic services to enable early and rapid diagnosis.

This includes screening for birth or heart defects, prenatal testing and checks for pregnancy complications.

Mrs. Cuthbert-Flynn said that Right Start is responding to the needs of vulnerable mothers, especially high-risk, low-income women.

“We want to make sure that during their pregnancy they are seeking and continuing their care and after birth they are still coming back to the hospital to make sure that they are in good health,” she said.

“This Right Start programme is to facilitate the safe, secure environment in the neonatal period, and we want mothers to get proper care,” Mrs. Cuthbert-Flynn noted further, stressing that “we must give the mothers a perfect start”.

Right Start is part of a larger effort by the Government to reduce maternal and infant mortality.

Mrs. Cuthbert-Flynn said that Jamaica remains committed to reducing the maternal mortality ratio to fewer than 70 per 100,000 live births by the year 2030, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets.

Jamaica’s maternal mortality rate was 80 per 100,000 live births in 2017.

Other hospitals that are benefiting from the programme are Victoria Jubilee in Kingston; Black River, St. Elizabeth; Cornwall Regional, St. James; Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland; St Ann’s Bay, St. Ann; May Pen, Clarendon; Princess Margaret, St. Thomas; Mandeville Regional, Manchester; and the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), St. Andrew.