BENGALURU : Newborn infants born before the completion of 37 weeks of pregnancy or fewer than 259 days from the first date of a woman’s last menstrual period are called preterm infants. There are various reasons why babies are delivered prematurely like younger age of mothers, anaemia, infections, lack of spacing between children, and IVF. Often, there will be no warning before delivery. Parents are expected to take critical decisions with the available information in a short period of time to avoid any risks to the newborn.
Premature infants need special monitoring, use of several high end equipments, laboratory and imaging services. Resuscitation of preterm infant is a complex process looking into every moment after separation from the mother. Best outcomes are achievable only with the interventions of expert teams. This expertise is lacking in several places of delivery in India leading to suboptimal outcomes.
There are no definite data of availability of trained persons and satisfactory facilities. There are at least 25 such private centres in Bengaluru compared to only around 40 government facilities in the state. As the illnesses are complex, babies might need various investigations to find the root cause of the problems, various treatments because of which the cost might increase further.
Babies less than 32 weeks must be managed in specialised NICUs ( Tertiary level). Many professional bodies recommend active resuscitation and treatment for babies more than 28 weeks of gestation. However, most tertiary centres have increasingly better results even with 26 weeks of gestation on par with world standards.
There are many misconceptions regarding prematurity. For example, many parents and relatives think that these babies have deficient organs. This is not true. Most of the times, preterm babies have organs and abilities appropriate for their age. Specialist nurses play a major role in taking care of sick newborns. Intensive care is provided using several high-end equipments and proven processes.
Parents have a significant role even after the discharge as these babies need a closer follow-up for monitoring the growth, development, vision, speech and social interactions. They need support even after discharge and apart from professionals working in this field, parents of premature infants themselves can share their experiences and guide others for the best outcomes.
About 13 per cent of all deliveries in India are premature
In India, 3,61,600 children die every year due to complications related directly to prematurity
As per every premee scale project supported by USAID, India collectively provides 4 out of 10 standards across the country
-The author is consultant neonatologist, HOD, Chinmaya Mission
Hospital NICU, co-founder of Neonatal Care and
Research Institute (NCRI), Bengaluru