A GNA feature by Ewoenam Kpodo
Ho, Sept 30, GNA- In some homes, a newborn with a yellowish skin is celebrated. “Our yellow baby,” family members coo with pride. No one knows they are admiring poison.
That golden colour is not beauty. It is bilirubin – a yellow chemical the body makes when old red blood cells break down. While the baby is in the womb, the mother’s liver clears it. After birth, the baby’s own immature liver must take over. When it fails, bilirubin builds in the blood, stains the skin and the whites of the eyes yellow, and if left unchecked, crosses into the brain. Doctors call it kernicterus. Families call it the beginning of a lifetime of regret.
For the Mensah family (not the real name) who lives somewhere in the Volta Region, that regret is now permanent.
The 28-year-old mother had avoided hospitals for years. She only entered a health facility for the first time when she became pregnant, after months of hesitation from family advice. Delivery went well. Her son looked healthy. In the days and weeks that followed, no one took the newborn for postnatal checkups. No Child Welfare Clinic visits. The yellow on his skin deepened, but at home, it was still seen as cute.
It was not.
By six months, he was not lifting his head like other babies. By age two, he could not sit unaided. He drooled frequently. By six years, little Mensah had unsteady, unstable gait, could sometimes understand what was being said to him but could not respond (slurred speech).
And all these times, the family sought home remedies, and spiritual help for his condition. When the family finally rushed him to the hospital, the paediatrician’s words shattered them.
“What we see here is a classic case of untreated severe jaundice. The damage to the brain’s motor centres is permanent. He will live with mobility challenges and delayed development for life,” the child medical specialist said.
Little Mensah had a cerebral palsy. He may never walk properly. He may struggle to hear, speak and learn. He was crippled for life – from a condition that is treatable in about two days.
A common condition with uncommon consequences
Jaundice is not rare. It is normal. About six in 10 full-term babies in Ghana develop it in their first few days because it takes a few days for their liver to learn to remove bilirubin.
For most, it disappears within one to two weeks. Frequent breastfeeding helps – regular bowel movements help the baby excrete bilirubin.
But for some, it turns out to be dangerous. And you cannot tell by looking.
“You can’t tell by looking if jaundice is high or low, or if it is about to reach the brain,” warned Dr Efua Yankah, Paediatrician and Clinical Care Coordinator at Ho Municipal Hospital.
“Visible symptoms don’t match the danger. The yellow skin is just the alarm; the danger is not knowing what is causing it,” she added.
She explained that behind the yellow, there could be a blood infection (sepsis), a different blood type between mother and baby, bruising from a difficult birth, too many red blood cells, low oxygen, or Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency – a condition where red blood cells break down rapidly. For G6PD babies, common home practices like adding camphor or naphthalene balls to clothes and water can trigger a crisis and push bilirubin to brain-damaging levels.
There is also biliary atresia, where the bile ducts are blocked or never formed. “Those babies need surgery within the first three months of life. After that, the outcomes are poor. They develop chronic liver disease and they die,” Dr. Yankah said. The clue is a chalk-white stool – a sign every mother must know.
“That is why every yellow baby must be tested. If you sit at home, you won’t know what’s causing your baby’s jaundice. Only hospital tests can tell us,” she insisted.
A treatable condition, yet children are still crippled
Treatment is simple and available in Ghana. A blood test shows the bilirubin level. If high, doctors recommend phototherapy – the baby is undressed, wears only a diaper and a protective eye mask, and is placed under special blue lights for one to two days.
The lights help the liver get rid of excess bilirubin and do not harm the baby. In rare cases where phototherapy fails, doctors do an exchange transfusion – replacing some of the baby’s blood with fresh donor blood.
What does not work? Sunlight, glucose water, and putting breast milk in the baby’s eyes -remedies still practiced in some homes that waste precious time.
Campaign against neonatal jaundice
According to statistics provided by Dr Emmanuel Atsu Dodor, the Volta Regional Director of Health Service, the region recorded 1,323 cases of neonatal jaundice in 2023, representing a rate of 3.29 percent of all newborns seen. In 2024, the figure dropped slightly to 1,204 cases, with a rate of 3.2 percent. However, in 2025, cases rose again to 1,348, with a rate of 3.3 percent. This shows that over the last three years, neonatal jaundice remained steady in the Volta Region.
Health workers across the Volta Region are intensifying education for mothers on jaundice in newborns through various channels including antenatal clinics and Child Welfare Clinics (CWCs).
In communities, facilities like the Ketu South Municipal Hospital (KSMH), Ho Municipal Hospital and Ho Teaching Hospital organise durbars, outreach programmes and awareness month campaigns involving chiefs, opinion leaders and Members of Parliament (MPs) to debunk myths that attribute jaundice to spiritual causes and more importantly advise mothers especially, to recognise yellow babies and seek medical care for them.
Dr Roch Sotindjo, Specialist Gynaecologist at KSMH during a community durbar and medical outreach at Aflao to climax neonatal jaundice awareness month in 2024 said, “Though neonatal jaundice is a treatable condition, it requires a united effort from all (families and communities, frontline healthcare workers and policymakers) to avoid the devastating consequences of its neglect.”
Madam Abla Dzifa Gomashie, MP for Ketu South, present at that durbar urged residents not to attribute everything to evil spirits or curses. “God has given wisdom to health professionals so that they can care for you when you are sick.”
For the Mensah family, that wisdom came too late.
Their son will not run with his mates. He may not speak clearly. He will need lifelong care. The family that once celebrated his golden skin now lives with irreversible regret, and emotional trauma that will never leave them.
Child Welfare Clinic visits in the first six weeks are not optional – they save lives and prevent disability. The Ghana Health Service advises parents to attend within 48 hours after birth, and at two, six, and 10 weeks.
Jaundice is common, but being crippled for life from it should never be.
GNA
Edited by Maxwell Awumah/Benjamin Mensah
Feature Writer: Ewoenam Kpodo, GNA