The Ministry’s review also identifies a number of factors that place some newborns at greater risk. Kampala has the country’s highest preterm birth rate, at 59.5 per 1,000 live births, compared with a national rate of 26.6. Lango and Acholi also have relatively high preterm birth rates, at 41.4 and 45.2 per 1,000 live births, respectively.
The burden does not end in the delivery room. The review identifies gaps in follow-up care for newborns who survive complications at birth.
In Kampala, for example, only 32.2% of underweight babies are initiated on Kangaroo Mother Care, the lowest rate nationally. The city also has a 68% missed-opportunity rate for the six-week postnatal check-up.
The Ministry has also flagged weaknesses in the quality of data on newborn resuscitation, making it difficult to fully understand where and why babies are dying.
The response is increasingly focused on identifying where care is failing. The Ministry has recommended urgent clinical audits of high-fatality referral hospitals and strengthened maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response, with deaths expected to be reviewed within seven days and corrective actions assigned and followed up.
For Uganda, the challenge is therefore not simply getting more babies resuscitated. The data raise questions about why so many newborns are reaching the point of asphyxia in the first place, why survival varies so sharply between regions and whether babies who survive their first crisis receive the follow-up care they need.
Source: Uganda Ministry of Health, Performance Review for April-June 2026. The figures above are drawn from the performance-review material provided.
