Peer Support, Mentorship, and Health Education for Families Caring for Low Birthweight, Sick, and Vulnerable Newborns
The journey of caring for a low birthweight, sick, or vulnerable newborn does not end at the hospital. For many families, it continues through long hospital stays, uncertainty, emotional stress, financial pressure, feeding challenges, follow up appointments, and fear about the baby's survival and development. Parents often face this experience with limited information, little psychosocial support, and few people around them who truly understand what it means to care for a newborn who needs specialized support.
The Tanzania Preterm Family Network (TPFN) is DMF's family support and advocacy platform for parents and caregivers of low birthweight, sick, and vulnerable newborns. The network grew out of the Doris Mollel Foundation Preemie Family WhatsApp group, which brought together more than 270 families through the shared experience of caring for premature infants. Recognizing the need for stronger structure and wider impact, the group is formalizing into a national network that provides peer support, mentorship, health education, and advocacy for families affected by newborn vulnerability and maternal and child health challenges. This transition allows parents and caregivers to move from informal support into a coordinated platform that can strengthen family knowledge, amplify lived experiences, and advocate for improved policies and practices related to maternal and newborn health in Tanzania.
Peer Support and Parental Training
Through the network, families are connected with other parents who have lived through similar experiences. This peer to peer model creates a safe space for caregivers to ask questions, share fears, receive encouragement, and learn from families who have cared for low birthweight, sick, and vulnerable newborns before them. It helps reduce isolation and gives parents confidence that they are not alone in the journey.
TPFN also provides parental training led by healthcare professionals. These sessions equip parents with practical skills for caring for low birthweight, sick, and vulnerable newborns, including Kangaroo Mother Care, feeding support, warmth, hygiene, danger signs, follow up care, and navigating the healthcare system.
Mentorship and Advocacy
The network also runs a parental mentorship programme that connects experienced parents of vulnerable newborns with new families. Through this structured mentorship model, parents receive emotional support, practical advice, and guidance from caregivers who understand the realities of newborn vulnerability from lived experience. TPFN also supports policy advocacy and gaps analysis. Through identifying gaps in policies and services affecting vulnerable newborns and their families, the network creates a stronger parent led advocacy platform for policy change, improved healthcare practices, and a more supportive care environment for newborns who need specialized care.
The network is structured to support both family leadership and technical guidance. Its leadership includes a technical committee. Through the network, DMF complements facility strengthening, medical equipment donation, healthcare worker training, and data driven newborn care interventions. While hospitals provide clinical care, families provide the daily love, warmth, feeding, protection, and follow up that mothers and newborns need to survive and thrive. To join the network or connect with family support services, please email us at tpfn@dorismollelfoundation.org.