Canadian support for newborns couldn’t come at a more urgent time
Three years of war has devastated the healthcare system in Sudan. Last week, over $740,000 of funding was provided by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and Global Affairs Canada to get neonatal incubators into the Sudan’s hospitals.
As the war wears on, the country’s already-high infant mortality rates are entering a vicious and deadly feedback loop.
On World Health Day, the Creating Hope in Conflict partnership provided funding to supply thirty incubators across seven healthcare facilities in Sudan. The program is jointly funded by the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom.
The funding will enable the procurement and delivery of lifesaving incubators to health facilities in Sudan combined with staff training and support. mOm incubators has partnered with International Medical Corps (IMC) to deliver this essential care.
Lauren Bellhouse, IMC senior advisor in maternal and newborn health, says “thermal care is one of the essential services that all newborns should receive,” calling the devices “critical” for small and sick newborns.
Bellhouse adds that such incubators “are often challenging to source and use in the emergency contexts where we operate. The mOm incubator is built for the realities of fragile and low-resource settings.”
Weighing only 20 kg, the mOm Essential Incubator is lighter and smaller than conventional incubators, conserving space in cramped conditions. The device is energy-efficient and has a back-up battery for power-loss scenarios. The devices are used in conflict settings such as Ukraine and Gaza, as well as within the United Kingdom’s NHS.
The significant investment in neonatal care lands at a critical time for the global humanitarian system, which is under immense strain. In December, UN Relief Chief Tom Fletcher described “cuts without historic precedent.”
Fabrizia Falcione, spokesperson for the UN Population Fund in Sudan called 2025 “one of the most devastating chapters in Sudan’s recent history.” In times when global solidarity is needed and when the humanitarian needs in Sudan are neglected, the support for improving newborn care could not come at a better time.
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Cassi Henderson is a biomedical engineer with mOm Incubators.
