As I first stepped through the doors of the neonatal intensive care unit, my eyes were drawn to the nametag taped to the closest incubator: baby Ostin, a little boy born at 26 weeks at just under two pounds. He’s been in the temperature-controlled incubator, on a ventilator, for two months. The nurse beside me whispers that this is common, and they can’t say for certain how much longer he’ll be here—it could be two more months, maybe three.
I’d never been inside a neonatal ward before. Nurses and doctors worked their way around the room monitoring the baby’s vital signs, conferring with one another in hushed tones. The echoes of beeping monitors, ventilators, and alarms were loudest. Every so often, a mother came in to hold her baby skin-to-skin.
The head of the NICU, Dr. Daphne Sanchez, shared with me just how critical and lifesaving the equipment in this room is, and how desperate they were before incubators and ventilators were delivered by Project HOPE. Before they had this equipment, they were using bassinets—open cribs under heat lamps—and around 70% of babies were dying.
“Without the right equipment, most of these babies would die,” she told me matter-of-factly. “These incubators and ventilators save lives.”
Located in Santo Domingo, San Lorenzo de Los Mina is the Dominican Republic’s largest maternity hospital. It had the highest neonatal mortality rate in the country before the Saving the Newborn program started in 2017. Since then, Project HOPE has renovated the NICU, procured and donated over 40 pieces of equipment, and trained hundreds of health workers on how to provide better care for high-risk and low birthweight babies.
The results have been profound: a reduction in deaths due to hypothermia, a decline in pulmonary hypertension from 80% to 37%, and transport time from delivery room to NICU reduced from four hours to nearly immediate, just to name three.
On the day I was here, Project HOPE was delivering boxes of Pumani, a cost-effective bubble continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) with built-in air compressor, which will help treat newborns with hypoxia. A Project HOPE team member put it simply for me: “It helps babies breathe.” This is the first time the hospital has had this equipment, and the national directors of health services and maternity and childcare came to receive it. Dozens of reporters and photographers filled the hospital lobby to document the handoff.
Dr. Sanchez was trained by Project HOPE and now trains other health workers on what she’s learned. She’s been at the hospital for 15 years, working tirelessly to save newborn lives. I was and still am in absolute awe of the unwavering commitment of each health worker I met that week.
When I asked Dr. Sanchez why she does this work, tears started to well up in her eyes. She’s motivated by love—by the hope that these newborns will have a chance to see their first birthdays, to get to be children and grow up resilient and strong.
“I see the sadness parents feel when they see their babies here in the incubators, and I see the light when I see them get to leave the hospital with their babies in their arms. It’s like giving the gift of life,” she shared.
The head of the program, Dr. Matos, told us that Project HOPE’s support has allowed them to share the protocol with other hospitals around the country. It has also prompted the Ministry of Health to recognize its importance and begin providing support.
As I walked through the hallways of Los Mina with Project HOPE staff, including country director Teresa Narvaez, nearly every health worker we passed gave nods of recognition or stopped to say hello, embrace team members, and share their latest updates—knowledge applied, a pound gained, a life saved.
What I know now is that when we say Project HOPE’s work is lifesaving, it’s not hyperbole. It’s another health worker who has the knowledge and equipment they need to succeed. It’s a new baby who gets the promise of childhood, and the chance for a long and healthy life. It’s a parent who gets to leave the hospital with their newborn and look forward to every other milestone to follow.
