BDayVyklyk: First Breath project donated resuscitator to Cradles of Hope centre in Rivne

In September 2021, the Cradles of Hope partner centre of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, operating at the Rivne regional perinatal centre, received a NeopuffTM RD900 infant resuscitator thanks to the BDayVyklyk: First Breath charity initiated by Ukrainian benefactor Kateryna Sadova.

The BDayVyklyk: First Breath project has already managed to raise UAH 1,775,134.94. By now, 14 devices have been bought for Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Uzhhorod, Chernihiv, Khmelnytsky (regional and city perinatal centres), Odesa, Kropyvnytsky, Vinnytsya, Sumy, Zaporizhzhya, Lviv, Dnipro and Rivne. Another Neopuff is to be installed in the Cradles of Hope partner centre in Kharkiv. You can support the project on the online fundraising charity platform dobro.ua.

The Rivne regional perinatal centre focuses on preterm births, pregnancies and deliveries complicated by somatic and obstetric pathology, nursing of premature babies during the neonatal period, and medical assistance to women of reproductive age. Specialists at the perinatal centre handle 80% of pathological deliveries by women from all over the region (an average of about 3,000 births a year). Assistance in the most difficult cases, which is about 300 children a year, is provided in the neonatal intensive care unit. The Victor Pinchuk Foundation contributed to the establishment of the Rivne regional perinatal centre in 2013 by equipping the neonatal intensive care unit with modern medical equipment for nursing premature babies worth UAH 3.9 million.

The first minutes of life are the most important for the treatment of premature babies, when the results of nursing and further quality of life depend on the timely and quality medical care provided. Sustained lung inflation ensured by the NeopuffTM RD900 infant resuscitator is a modern method of addressing babies' respiratory problems directly in the delivery room. This method has proved highly effective in selected perinatal centres. It significantly reduces the need for classical artificial ventilation by intubating babies' trachea, saves on expensive surfactant, reduces the time babies spend on respiratory support and thus the number of complications associated with prolonged artificial ventilation.