A Story of Warmth in Ethiopia

When 37-year-old Teberh, a mother of four, arrived at Endabaguna Primary Hospital after days of labor complications, she was terrified. Her pregnancy was only 32 weeks along, and the nearest hospital with advanced equipment was more than 55 kilometers away—over rough, unpaved roads. She gave birth to a tiny baby girl weighing just 1.8 kilograms (3.9 pounds). Within moments, her newborn’s temperature fell to a dangerous level of hypothermia.

In a facility already stretched beyond capacity, with frequent power outages and limited equipment, her survival seemed uncertain. But this time, the hospital had something different — an Embrace Infant Warmer, provided through a partnership with International Medical Corps (IMC).

The nurses gently placed the fragile baby into the Embrace warmer, a small, portable incubator designed to keep newborns warm even when electricity is unreliable. Slowly, her temperature began to rise. Within hours, her condition stabilized. After three days of continuous care, her temperature reached a healthy level and she could finally rest safely in her mother’s arms.

“I had no hope that my baby would live because she was so small,” Teberh shared. “I have never seen such a baby survive. Thank you for your care — because of you, my child will live.”

Endabaguna Primary Hospital, in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, serves a catchment population of more than 180,000 people, including three sites for internally displaced persons (IDPs) that host more than 43,000 people. It’s the only facility in the area with a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and handles up to 300 deliveries per month.

Yet like many hospitals across northern Ethiopia, it faces immense challenges: overcrowding, equipment shortages, and rolling power cuts. Hypothermia is one of the leading causes of newborn admissions. For premature babies, it can quickly become fatal.

Before receiving Embrace incubators, the hospital relied on a single radiant warmer and improvised methods like layering blankets or using heated bottles to prevent cold stress—techniques that are often unsafe or ineffective.

Teberh’s story is one among thousands, but it captures what Embrace Global stands for: simple technology saving fragile lives. In places where stable electricity and modern incubators are out of reach, the Embrace warmer bridges that gap by helping babies survive their first, most vulnerable days of life.

As Embrace continues to expand across Ethiopia and beyond, each incubator represents something much bigger than a medical device—it represents a chance at life.

This is what hope looks like: a mother’s embrace, a baby’s steady heartbeat, and the power of partnership to save lives.

Give the gift of warmth to babies around the world.

About Embrace Global

Embrace Global is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit working to reduce neonatal mortality by providing life-saving warmth to the world’s most vulnerable newborns. Embrace has helped save over one million babies across 25+ countries, deploying portable incubators designed for low-resource, conflict, and emergency settings.