World Prematurity Day – Stories from Beyond the NICU

Doris started the Doris Mollel Foundation in 2015, inspired by her own personal story. She was born preterm, weighing only 900 grams. Today, through her foundation, she supports some of the smallest and most vulnerable newborns and their families in Tanzania, while also advocating for stronger newborn health systems and greater awareness of prematurity.

Her advocacy has also contributed to a major global milestone for the preterm community. In 2025, World Prematurity Day was officially recognized by the World Health Assembly as part of the WHO calendar of global health campaigns. This achievement reflects years of dedication from the global preterm community, including Doris’s tireless efforts to bring the needs of babies born too soon and their families to the attention of decision-makers. With this recognition, World Prematurity Day has become an even stronger platform for advocacy, collaboration, and change.

The World Prematurity Day 2026 slogan, “Small babies, big potential. Invest in follow-up care to protect their future,” reflects the same message at the heart of Doris’s work: every baby born too soon deserves the chance to grow, develop, and reach their full potential. But to make this possible, care must continue beyond the hospital, and communities must be part of the solution.

How can families better support babies born too soon, too small, or sick despite stigma or taboos?

Doris Mollel:

A very good example is how we involve men in Kangaroo Care at home, especially in agricultural and pastoral families. A man may be expected to go and take care of the cows, but when he comes back home, he can wash, return to the family, and help his wife with Kangaroo Care. It may look like a small thing, but we need to engage men and talk to them from the beginning.

We need to make sure men go together with their wives to the healthcare facility during pregnancy. They should be there during delivery, but they should also understand the importance of working together to raise a prematurely born baby.

Doris’s message is clear: family involvement cannot begin only after discharge. It should start early, during pregnancy and birth, so that fathers and other family members understand their role in protecting the baby’s health and development.

This is especially important in communities where prematurity, low birth weight, or newborn illness may be surrounded by stigma, taboos, or traditional beliefs that make it harder for families to seek help openly. In these situations, mothers may carry an enormous burden alone. They may be expected to care for a fragile baby while also managing household responsibilities, financial stress, and emotional pressure.

Involving fathers, relatives, and community members can help change this. When families understand that babies born too soon need warmth, hygiene, feeding support, close monitoring, and timely medical care, they can become active partners in follow-up care. Small actions, such as supporting skin-to-skin care (Kangaroo Care), helping with daily tasks, washing hands before touching the baby, or recognizing warning signs, can make a meaningful difference.

But Doris also emphasizes that organizations and decision-makers need to change how they work with communities.

The challenge is that decision-makers, organization leaders, multilaterals, and governments do not always connect well with community members. When I say community members, I mean the people on the ground, including local communities and societies. In everything we do, in the ideas and decisions we have, we need to decide with them and not for them.

This is the best way to reduce the challenges we see, especially taboos and harmful traditional practices that create discomfort for families who are raising babies born too soon, too small, or sick. If we change our way of thinking and start developing proposals, concepts, and activities together with the end users, the community members, it can really help. They know how best to bring together health messages and their traditional ways of thinking without discrimination and without taking them away from the culture they are used to.

This perspective is essential for meaningful follow-up care. Programs are more likely to be trusted and used when they are shaped with the people they are meant to support. Community members understand local beliefs, family structures, barriers, and strengths. They can help adapt follow-up care in ways that are respectful, realistic, and effective.

For World Prematurity Day 2026, this is a central message: investing in follow-up care also means investing in community partnerships. It means listening to families, working with local leaders, and building support systems that fit the real lives of babies and caregivers after discharge.

What is one message you would like to share with parents taking their preterm babies home after discharge?

Doris Mollel:

My one big message to families, especially African families, is that preterm babies can survive when you give them the right care. As family members, we have to be part of giving them the right care, especially when babies and families are released back home.

Kangaroo Mother Care should continue. Kangaroo Father Care should continue. Skin-to-skin contact should continue. All family members should help make sure the baby is in good condition.

Families should wash their hands with water and soap before touching the baby. The room where the baby sleeps should be clean and hygienic, so that we reduce the risk of infection. These are small things we can do, but babies can survive when we give them the right care.

Doris’ message highlights a simple truth: everyone has a role to play in raising babies born too soon.

For families, this message is both practical and hopeful. After discharge, parents may feel afraid of doing something wrong. But Doris reminds us that many protective steps are simple and possible at home: continuing skin-to-skin care, keeping the baby warm, washing hands, maintaining a clean sleeping space, watching the baby closely, and asking for medical help when needed.

At the same time, these steps should not fall on mothers alone. When fathers, grandparents, siblings, relatives, and community members understand their role, the baby is better protected, and the family is less isolated.

This is what follow-up care can look like at community level: not only formal appointments, but shared knowledge, practical support, and everyday actions that help babies stay safe after leaving the hospital.

The 2026 World Prematurity Day theme calls on governments, health systems, healthcare professionals, advocates, and communities to strengthen follow-up care after discharge. Doris’s work shows why this must include families and communities as active partners. Babies born too soon have big potential, and when the right care continues at home, that potential can be protected.

By listening to communities, addressing stigma with respect, involving fathers and families, and supporting simple but life-saving care practices, we can help more babies born too soon, too small, or sick not only survive, but grow, develop, and thrive beyond the NICU.

Read more about Doris Mollel Foundation’s mission and the programs they lead in Tanzania: Doris Mollel Foundation