How early can a preemie survive

the long-term impacts of being born extremely early

Scientists are watching out for the health of adults born extremely premature, such as these people who took part in a photography project.Credit: Red Méthot

They told Marcelle Girard her baby was dead.

Back in 1992, Girard, a dentist in Gatineau, Canada, was 26 weeks pregnant and on her honeymoon in the Dominican Republic.

When she started bleeding, physicians at the local clinic assumed the baby had died. But Girard and her husband felt a kick. Only then did the doctors check for a fetal heartbeat and realize the baby was alive.

The couple was medically evacuated by air to Montreal, Canada, then taken to the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Center. Five hours later, Camille Girard-Bock was born, weighing just 920 grams (2 pounds).

Babies born so early are fragile and underdeveloped. Their lungs are particularly delicate: the organs lack the slippery substance, called surfactant, that prevents the airways from collapsing upon exhalation. Fortunately for Girard and her family, Sainte-Justine had recently started giving surfactant, a new treatment at the time, to premature babies.

After three months of intensive care, Girard took her baby home.

Today, Camille Girard-Bock is 27 years old and studying for a PhD in biomedical sciences at the University of Montreal. Working with researchers at Sainte-Justine, she’s addressing the long-term consequences of being born extremely premature — defined, variously, as less than 25–28 weeks in gestational age.

Families often assume they will have grasped the major issues arising from a premature birth once the child reaches school age, by which time any neurodevelopmental problems will have appeared, Girard-Bock says. But that’s not necessarily the case. Her PhD advisers have found that young adults of this population exhibit risk factors for cardiovascular disease — and it may be that more chronic health conditions will show up with time.

Camille Girard-Bock, born at 26 weeks of gestation, is now studying the effects of prematurity for a PhD. Credit: Red Méthot

Girard-Bock doesn’t let these risks preoccupy her. “As a survivor of preterm birth, you beat so many odds,” she says. “I guess I have some kind of sense that I’m going to beat those odds also.”

She and other against-the-odds babies are part of a population which is larger now than at any time in history: young adults who are survivors of extreme prematurity. For the first time, researchers can start to understand the long-term consequences of being born so early. Results are pouring out of cohort studies that have been tracking kids since birth, providing data on possible long-term outcomes; other studies are trialling ways to minimize the consequences for health.

These data can help parents make difficult decisions about whether to keep fighting for a baby’s survival. Although many extremely premature infants grow up to lead healthy lives, disability is still a major concern, particularly cognitive deficits and cerebral palsy.

Researchers are working on novel interventions to boost survival and reduce disability in extremely premature newborns. Several compounds aimed at improving lung, brain and eye function are in clinical trials, and researchers are exploring parent-support programmes, too.

Researchers are also investigating ways to help adults who were born extremely prematurely to cope with some of the long-term health impacts they might face: trialling exercise regimes to minimize the newly identified risk of cardiovascular disease, for example.

“We are really at the stage of seeing this cohort becoming older,” says neonatologist Jeanie Cheong at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. Cheong is the director of the Victorian Infant Collaborative Study (VICS), which has been following survivors for four decades. “This is an exciting time for us to really make a difference to their health.”

The late twentieth century brought huge changes to neonatal medicine. Lex Doyle, a paediatrician and previous director of VICS, recalls that when he started caring for preterm infants in 1975, very few survived if they were born at under 1,000 grams — a birthweight that corresponds to about 28 weeks’ gestation. The introduction of ventilators, in the 1970s in Australia, helped, but also caused lung injuries, says Doyle, now associate director of research at the Royal Women’s Hospital. In the following decades, doctors began to give corticosteroids to mothers due to deliver early, to help mature the baby’s lungs just before birth. But the biggest difference to survival came in the early 1990s, with surfactant treatment.

“I remember when it arrived,” says Anne Monique Nuyt, a neonatologist at Sainte-Justine and one of Girard-Bock’s advisers. “It was a miracle.” Risk of death for premature infants dropped to 60–73% of what it was before¹^,².

Marcelle Girard looks in at baby Camille, born weighing just 920 grams (2 pounds).Credit: Camille Girard-Bock

Today, many hospitals regularly treat, and often save, babies born as early as 22–24 weeks. Survival rates vary depending on location and the kinds of interventions a hospital is able to provide. In the United Kingdom, for example, among babies who are alive at birth and receiving care, 35% born at 22 weeks survive, 38% at 23 weeks, and 60% at 24 weeks³.

For babies who survive, the earlier they are born, the higher the risk of complications or ongoing disability (see ‘The effects of being early’). There is a long list of potential problems — including asthma, anxiety, autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, epilepsy and cognitive impairment — and about one-third of children born extremely prematurely have one condition on the list, says Mike O’Shea, a neonatologist at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, who co-runs a study tracking children born between 2002 and 2004. In this cohort, another one-third have multiple disabilities, he says, and the rest have none.

“Preterm birth should be thought of as a chronic condition that requires long-term follow-up,” says Casey Crump, a family physician and epidemiologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, who notes that when these babies become older children or adults, they don’t usually get special medical attention. “Doctors are not used to seeing them, but they increasingly will. ”

Outlooks for earlies

What should doctors expect? For a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association last year⁴, Crump and his colleagues scraped data from the Swedish birth registry. They looked at more than 2.5 million people born from 1973 to 1997, and checked their records for health issues up until the end of 2015.

Source: Ref. 4

Of the 5,391 people born extremely preterm, 78% had at least one condition that manifested in adolescence or early adulthood, such as a psychiatric disorder, compared with 37% of those born full-term. When the researchers looked at predictors of early mortality, such as heart disease, 68% of people born extremely prematurely had at least one such predictor, compared with 18% for full-term births — although these data include people born before surfactant and corticosteroid use were widespread, so it’s unclear if these data reflect outcomes for babies born today. Researchers have found similar trends in a UK cohort study of extremely premature births. In results published earlier this year⁵, the EPICure study team, led by neonatologist Neil Marlow at University College London, found that 60% of 19-year-olds who were extremely premature were impaired in at least one neuropsychological area, often cognition.

Such disabilities can impact education as well as quality of life. Craig Garfield, a paediatrician at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Illinois, addressed a basic question about the first formal year of schooling in the United States: “Is your kid ready for kindergarten, or not?”

To answer it, Garfield and his colleagues analysed standardized test scores and teacher assessments on children born in Florida between 1992 and 2002. Of those born at 23 or 24 weeks, 65% were considered ready to start kindergarten at the standard age, 5–6 years old, with the age adjusted to take into account their earlier birth. In comparison, 85.3% of children born full term were kindergarten-ready⁶.

Despite their tricky start, by the time they reach adolescence, many people born prematurely have a positive outlook. In a 2006 paper⁷, researchers studying individuals born weighing 1,000 grams or less compared these young adults’ perceptions of their own quality of life with those of peers of normal birthweight — and, to their surprise, found that the scores were comparable. Conversely, a 2018 study⁸ found that children born at less than 28 weeks did report having a significantly lower quality of life. The children, who did not have major disabilities, scored themselves 6 points lower, out of 100, than a reference population.

As Marlow spent time with his participants and their families, his worries about severe neurological issues diminished. Even when such issues are present, they don’t greatly limit most children and young adults. “They want to know that they are going to live a long life, a happy life,” he says. Most are on track to do so. “The truth is, if you survive at 22 weeks, the majority of survivors do not have a severe, life-limiting disability. ”

A nurse uses electroencephalography (EEG) to carry out a check of brain development on a baby born at 25 weeks.Credit: BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty

Breathless

But scientists have only just begun to follow people born extremely prematurely into adulthood and then middle age and beyond, where health issues may yet lurk. “I’d like scientists to focus on improving the long-term outcomes as much as the short-term outcomes,” says Tala Alsadik, a 16-year-old high-school student in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

When Alsadik’s mother was 25 weeks pregnant and her waters broke, doctors went so far as to hand funeral paperwork to the family before consenting to perform a caesarean section. As a newborn, Alsadik spent three months in the neonatal-intensive-care unit (NICU) with kidney failure, sepsis and respiratory distress.

The complications didn’t end when she went home. The consequences of her prematurity are on display every time she speaks, her voice high and breathy because the ventilator she was put on damaged her vocal cords. When she was 15, her navel unexpectedly began leaking yellow discharge, and she required surgery. It turned out to be caused by materials leftover from when she received nutrients through a navel tube.

The brain, interrupted

That certainly wasn’t something her physicians knew to check for. In fact, doctors don’t often ask if an adolescent or adult patient was born prematurely — but doing so can be revealing.

Charlotte Bolton is a respiratory physician at the University of Nottingham, UK, where she specializes in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). People coming into her practice tend to be in their 40s or older, often current or former smokers. But in around 2008, she began to notice a new type of patient being referred to her owing to breathlessness and COPD-like symptoms: 20-something non-smokers.

Quizzing them, Bolton discovered that many had been born before 32 weeks. For more insight, she got in touch with Marlow, who had also become concerned about lung function as the EPICure participants aged. Alterations in lung function are a key predictor of cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death around the world. Clinicians already knew that after extremely premature birth, the lungs often don’t grow to full size. Ventilators, high oxygen levels, inflammation and infection can further damage the immature lungs, leading to low lung function and long-term breathing problems, as Bolton, Marlow and their colleagues showed in a study of 11-year-olds⁹.

Treatments for premature babies have improved in recent decades, but survival rates vary by age and country.Credit: Mohammed Hamoud/Getty

VICS research backs up the cardiovascular concerns: researchers have observed diminished airflow in 8-year-olds, worsening as they aged¹⁰, as well as high blood pressure in young adults¹¹. “We really haven’t found the reason yet,” says Cheong. “That opens up a whole new research area.”

At Sainte-Justine, researchers have also noticed that young adults who were born at 28 weeks or less are at nearly three times the usual risk of having high blood pressure¹². The researchers figured they would try medications to control it. But their patient advisory board members had other ideas — they wanted to try lifestyle interventions first.

The scientists were pessimistic as they began a pilot study of a 14-week exercise programme. They thought that the cardiovascular risk factors would be unchangeable. Preliminary results indicate that they were wrong; the young adults are improving with exercise.

Girard-Bock says the data motivate her to eat healthily and stay active. “I’ve been given the chance to stay alive,” she says. “I need to be careful.”

From the start

For babies born prematurely, the first weeks and months of life are still the most treacherous. Dozens of clinical trials are in progress for prematurity and associated complications, some testing different nutritional formulas or improving parental support, and others targeting specific issues that lead to disability later on: underdeveloped lungs, brain bleeds and altered eye development.

For instance, researchers hoping to protect babies’ lungs gave a growth factor called IGF-1 — which the fetus usually gets from its mother during the first two trimesters of pregnancy — to premature babies in a phase II clinical trial reported¹³ in 2016. Rates of a chronic lung condition that often affects premature babies halved, and babies were somewhat less likely to have a severe brain haemorrhage in their earliest months.

Could baby’s first bacteria take root before birth?

Another concern is visual impairment. Retina development halts prematurely when babies born early begin breathing oxygen. Later it restarts, but preterm babies might then make too much of a growth factor called VEGF, causing over-proliferation of blood vessels in the eye, a disorder known as retinopathy. In a phase III trial announced in 2018, researchers successfully treated 80% of these retinopathy cases with a VEGF-blocking drug called ranibizumab¹⁴, and in 2019 the drug was approved in the European Union for use in premature babies.

Some common drugs might also be of use: paracetamol (acetaminophen), for example, lowers levels of biomolecules called prostaglandins, and this seems to encourage a key fetal vein in the lungs to close, preventing fluid from entering the lungs¹⁵.

But among the most promising treatment programmes, some neonatologists say, are social interventions to help families after they leave the hospital. For parents, it can be nerve-racking to go it alone after depending on a team of specialists for months, and lack of parental confidence has been linked to parental depression and difficulties with behaviour and social development in their growing children.

At Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island in Providence, Betty Vohr is director of the Neonatal Follow-Up Program. There, families are placed in private rooms, instead of sharing a large bay as happens in many NICUs. Once they are ready to leave, a programme called Transition Home Plus helps them to prepare and provides assistance such as regular check-ins by phone and in person in the first few days at home, and a 24/7 helpline. For mothers with postnatal depression, the hospital offers care from psychologists and specialist nurses.

The results have been significant, says Vohr. The single-family rooms resulted in higher milk production by mothers: 30% more at four weeks than for families in more open spaces. At 2 years old, children from the single-family rooms scored higher on cognitive and language tests¹⁶. After Transition Home Plus began, babies discharged from the NICU had lower health-care costs and fewer hospital visits — issues that are of great concern for premature infants¹⁷. Other NICUs are developing similar programmes, Vohr says.

With these types of novel intervention, and the long-term data that continue to pour out of studies, doctors can make better predictions than ever before about how extremely premature infants will fare. Although these individuals face complications, many will thrive.

Alsadik, for one, intends to be a success story. Despite her difficult start in life, she does well academically, and plans to become a neonatologist. “I, also, want to improve the long-term outcomes of premature birth for other people.”

Premature Babies’ Survival Rate is Climbing, Study Says

February 10, 2022 | Ruthann Richter

Research and Innovation.

A comprehensive new study of premature babies in the United States is helping to redefine what it means for a premature infant to survive.

The study looked at 10,877 babies born between 2013 and 2018 and found a significant improvement in survival of those born between 22 and 28 weeks, compared to the past. Some 78% were rescued, compared to 76% of those born between 2008 and 2012. Two percent may not sound like much but it translates into many hundreds of infants saved each year.

This study showed that even those delivered at 22 weeks — 18 weeks early — had a chance of living. With active treatment, about 28% of them survived; among those born at 23 weeks, 55% survived. “When I was in residency in the mid-1980s, babies born at 500 grams [about 1. 1 pounds] and 25 weeks didn’t survive; it just didn’t happen. Now we see the borderline of viability dropping to 22 weeks,” said neonatologist Krisa Van Meurs, MD, a Stanford Medicine emerita professor of pediatrics and a co-author on the study. “With all of these new treatment strategies we’ve developed, we’ve seen an amazing impact.”

This analysis shows infants even at the lowest gestational ages — 22 and 23 weeks — might live if they are actively resuscitated, said Susan Hintz, MD, professor of pediatrics and a co-author on the paper. “There has been a shift toward considering a more active initial treatment in prenatal discussions with families over the past several years in light of increasing data to support this approach,” she said.

This study appeared Jan. 18 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Tracking babies

The researchers studied the neurosensory, developmental and functional progress of babies born at 22-26 weeks of gestation, conducting evaluations when the children were 2 years old. Overall, about half had mild or no signs of neurodevelopmental problems, while 29% had moderate disabilities. About 21% of the children had severe impairments, including approximately 1.5% with blindness and 2.5% with severe hearing loss. Some 15% of the children used a mobility aid such as an orthotic, brace or walker, while 8% had moderate to severe cerebral palsy. About half had been re-hospitalized after being discharged from the neonatal intensive care unit.

“It is encouraging that half of the children had no or minimal neurodevelopmental impairments at 2 years. But moderate to severe neurodevelopmental challenges are not uncommon in this group, particularly for those born at the lowest gestational ages,” said Hintz. “We also explored other important outcomes, like feeding challenges and equipment and medication needs, which inform complex care preparations and counseling.”

Improving outcomes

In the past 20 to 30 years, researchers have discovered myriad approaches to improve the survival and care of premature infants, Van Meurs said. That includes using surfactant, a mix of protein and fat that aids lung development, as well as steroids in pregnant mothers, which helps the baby’s lungs and other organs mature and minimizes the risk of breathing problems, bleeding in the brain and other complications, she said.

Clinicians also have enhanced the environment in which preterm infants are treated, creating a womb-like atmosphere with low lighting, and minimal noise and disruption. They are also using CPAP devices, which help keep the airways open and are a gentler way of supporting breathing, instead of using ventilators, which can damage the lungs, Van Meurs said.

Parents are also being included in the treatment process—it’s been shown that regular parental touch and especially skin-to-skin “kangaroo care” can increase weight gain, decrease the chance of sepsis—a severe blood infection—and improve survival and neurodevelopment, she said.

Van Meurs said Stanford uses innovative neuromonitoring devices to monitor brain activity and oxygen levels in the brains of fragile newborns to minimize brain injury in the neonatal intensive care unit. “That’s the focus for the next decade—how can we protect the brain and improve outcomes for these children,” she said.

According to Hintz, investigators in the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development Neonatal Research Network, a group of 18 academic medical centers funded by the institute, are continuing to follow some of the children born extremely preterm through 5-7 years of age. “At an early school age, we can better understand abilities and challenges over a range of more detailed neurologic and cognitive skills, behavioral and social interactions and functional outcomes,” said Hintz, who is the lead investigator for the research network’s follow-up activities.

Continuing care at home

With the increasing probability of survival for extraordinarily preterm infants, Hintz said, more emphasis needs to be placed on life beyond the hospital.

“We need to shift our focus from the NICU hospitalization to far beyond that period, investing in parents and the family, launching interventions and support strategies to improve outcomes that are important to families,” Hintz said. “We have made enormous strides and are doing amazing things for children in the NICU. Now it’s time for us to take a truly life-course view—listening to families, integrating the concerns and outcomes important to them in research and quality improvement efforts. This is how we will help families and children to live their best lives.”

Authors

Tags: NICU, premature babies, research

“His organs and systems are not ready” Why are they trying to save children in Russia who have almost no chance of surviving and being healthy: Society: Russia: Lenta.ru

period (less than 22 weeks) and extremely low weight (less than 500 grams). This happened after a series of criminal cases that the Investigative Committee initiated against obstetricians. So, neonatologist Elina Sushkevich from Kaliningrad was accused of killing a 22-week-old boy. Why are they trying to save 500-gram children in Russia at all today, what are their chances of surviving and whether they can grow up healthy - Lenta. ru learned from the doctor of medical sciences, head of the scientific department of neonatology and pathology of young children at the Research Clinical Institute of Pediatrics named after Yu.E. Veltishchev Elena Keshishyan.

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Lenta.ru: Now the minimum criteria for saving premature babies are 22-23 weeks and 500 grams of weight. Why?

Elena Keshishyan : In order to understand what is the limit of possibilities both in technical terms (creation of an environment close to intrauterine), and in terms of the maturity of the child's brain, which is able to develop out of utero, attempts were made in the world to give birth to premature babies of different ages. The greatest successes in this were achieved by the Japanese. They tried out babies born at 20 weeks. That is, the approximate gestational age was five months. The Japanese succeeded, but in isolated cases. And they saw that in children born at this age there is no differentiation of the brain, division into gray and white matter. Roughly speaking, this process determines the ability to think, to feel. This is called higher nervous activity. It is this ability that distinguishes man from animals.

Therefore, guided by research data and on the basis of a humanistic idea, the World Health Organization has established this limit for human live birth - 23 weeks, which corresponds to approximately 500 grams of weight. This is the minimum age at which the brain can differentiate into gray and white matter. And, accordingly, there is hope that it will already be a human person with mental abilities.

Countries with technological capabilities, including Russia, have agreed that those born at this gestational age can legally be considered human. That is, they have all human rights, including medical care.

Since 2012, Russia has moved to the WHO criteria for nursing premature babies. How many of these children have been saved during this time?

As a percentage of all those born, this is a minuscule amount. I don't have exact numbers. But I want to say that the body of children born almost half prematurely is very immature. And their survival rate, conditionally, is one in a hundred. Still, 22-23 weeks is not childbirth in the full sense. From the point of view of nature, this is a miscarriage, this is a critical situation that may be associated with the health of the mother or the sick child herself. Therefore, the readiness for independent existence in such fruits is close to zero. Even if we assume that the maximum efforts of doctors are thrown to save the child, all the necessary equipment is connected, the chance that he will get out is very small. In such an infant, the kidneys, gastrointestinal tract, heart and other organs may not work. This is a very, very complex, jewelry work of doctors.

One of the smallest surviving premature babies in the world. Amilya Taylor was born in 2006 in Miami, USA. She spent only 22 weeks in the womb and was born with a weight of 284 grams and a height of 24 centimeters.

Photo: Baptist Health South Florida / Reuters

And dear?

Of course. A day in a well-equipped neonatal intensive care unit costs several thousand dollars. And to leave such a child, months are needed. But I want to emphasize that the number of survivors in this period is minimal. And it is minimal in almost all countries where the WHO criteria apply.

If these children are not viable, cost too much, then why were these criteria established?

The medical task here is not at all to save without exception all children born at a term of five months. It is clear that there is not a single person who does not understand that this child is at risk of being blind, deaf and immobilized. The task of medicine in this situation is to acquire knowledge and experience.

Obstetricians learn how to prolong pregnancy as much as possible. There is a whole range of activities: prenatal diagnosis of genetic chromosomal diseases, various fetal malformations, identification of risk groups among pregnant women, their special monitoring, prenatal logistics and routing. They also hone the ability to properly take birth at this time. This must be done as carefully as possible and do not forget about the "golden hour". It is necessary to have time to give the child, without waiting until his condition worsens, what he could not get from his mother. That is, even if the child screamed, you need to understand that soon he will stop doing this and will not be able to breathe. The "golden hour" essentially determines whether or not there will be damage to brain cells. This means whether or not a child will have a full life.

And the qualifications of resuscitators working with such children are growing today. All this led to an important point: the quality of nursing of children born a little later, at 26-28 weeks, has become much better. I see these babies regularly. And I can say that over time, many of them are no different from their peers.

And before?

About 30 years ago, about six or seven out of ten children would have become severely disabled. And today I had three 26-week-old babies at my appointment. And everyone is developing quite well, there is a slight backlog, but they will catch up. These children no longer have those possible malformations that, unfortunately, would have necessarily arisen in past years.

And this became possible thanks to the experience, the accumulation of knowledge about how such babies develop. There are no small things. This applies to everything - how to evaluate the heartbeat, how to interpret blood tests, and so on. Caring for a premature baby, both in the neonatal period and later, in the first or second year of life, is not the same as managing a normal, full-term baby. But knowledge allows timely adjustment of development, without even waiting for problems.

Photo: Science Photo Library / East News

It is important to understand that a premature baby is not a small copy of a normal one. This is a child who is forced to adapt to extrauterine life, when physiologically he should not do this. Its organs and systems are not prepared to function in the new conditions.

"This is painful love at the level of deep depression"

What do such children most often suffer from?

One of the typical pathologies is retinopathy of prematurity. In children, the mechanism that protects the eye from light has not yet matured. And they experience a real shock, suddenly falling into our bright world. Photons of light and the flow of oxygen begin to act on the retina, its vessels begin to grow rapidly, penetrate all the media of the eye, and, ultimately, exfoliate the retina, leading to total blindness. Earlier, even when I was just starting to work, although we knew about such a disease as retinopathy of prematurity, there were few children born and surviving at gestational ages of less than 30 weeks. Therefore, no one knew how to treat this disease. It's scary to remember, but premature babies were in wards with round-the-clock lighting. The light was needed so that doctors and nurses could observe the baby's condition and notice changes in time. At that time, six out of ten children whose birth weight was less than a kilogram went blind. Just then, the borders were opened in Russia, and we were amazed that in Europe, a maximum of two out of ten newborns had blindness.

But we started learning very quickly. Now in perinatal centers in all intensive care units for premature babies - twilight. The cuveuses are completely covered with dark blankets. The staff does not need to watch the baby all the time - all readings are automatically recorded by special devices. In good ICUs, nurses who approach babies have headlights. This is to avoid disturbing other children. In many intensive care units, a large “ear” hangs. If the decibel level in the room begins to exceed the allowable limit, the device lights up red.

After the birth of the child, every week they begin to look at the eyes with a special method. If there is proliferation of blood vessels, laser coagulation of the retina is performed. There are specialists in such operations in almost every major city.

Approximately 400-600 babies pass through me every year, born at 26-28 weeks. Over the past few years, not a single blind person has been among them. Although earlier in hospitals for such newborns it was necessary to open entire departments.

Is there any data on how many premature babies later became healthy?

Now, among premature babies born at five or six months (25-26 weeks of pregnancy), 25-30 percent become disabled. The same is true in developed countries. And even 20-30 years ago there were 75-80 percent of them.

The risks for these children are still very high. They require long-term observation and treatment. But still today they have incommensurably or better chances than before.

Photo: East News

Do unfortunate parents regret insisting on resuscitation at all costs?

As a doctor, no one has ever told me this. Naturally, the families had very different hopes for childbirth. In the doctor's office they cry, but they don't moan. These children are madly loved. But this is painful love at the level of deep depression. Probably, some of these mothers may think at night what would happen if they knew in advance how everything would turn out. Perhaps they voice this to their mothers, husbands, girlfriends ... But not to doctors. This is where people prefer to stay.

When a child is one or two years old, from a moral point of view, the situation is more difficult than in three days. Newborns are all wonderful bags, it is only then that children begin to differ from each other. These families have a very specific and difficult life. When a child lies at home, does not move, does not swallow, never looks at you, does not speak - this is very difficult. And parents need to be helped to turn their life into at least a relatively social one, not to make them outcasts.

What family support can I expect now?

When Russia switched to WHO standards, doctors began to say that if we started caring for such children, there would be a high incidence of cerebral palsy, mental retardation and other pathologies leading to severe disability. Without the development of a specialized service that will help such children, we will inflict enormous damage on a society that will not accept such an increase in the number of people with disabilities. Then a follow-up system for premature babies began to develop, which leads them up to three years. Because in the usual polyclinic network there are not always doctors who understand how a child born with low or extremely low body weight grows and develops. In parallel with this, the system of medical rehabilitation is developing quite rapidly.

The worst situation is with the social service. Help for these children is minimal. Few people explain to families how to care for such a child, how to develop him, how to maintain motor skills. If in large cities at least some minuscule can be achieved, then what can we say about the province? All this turns one of the parents out of social life. There are no places where it would be possible to transfer such a child at least for a week, a month, so that the parents could have a little rest. Since the state has taken such a step, since we have legally recognized a 500-gram fetus as a person, then they themselves also need to act humanly in the future with his family.

Is there a support system in other countries?

I know that in Europe and in the USA it is built very well. The emphasis is not on medical rehabilitation, but on social rehabilitation. They have social workers who come and relieve these families of a significant part of their worries. Somewhere there are social centers where a child can be taken to a kindergarten. Moreover, they are zoned - parents do not need to go to the other end of the city.

Photo: Alexander Kondratyuk / RIA Novosti

“Even if it is clear that a child has pathologies that are incompatible with life, they must be saved to the last”

You say that some time ago, 1kg premature babies were also considered “non-residents”, but now they are quite promising. Is it possible that in 30-40 years the same can be said about 500-gram ones?

Indeed, even 30-40 years ago, when it was not possible to maintain breathing, children born before seven months of age survived very rarely.

Then, when some first mechanisms appeared, the bar was raised until the 28th week of pregnancy, which is about six months. But technological progress is always moving forward, and this has allowed us to further gradually reduce the age of survival. We can now at least partially simulate intrauterine conditions. For example, when a child is not born on time, he does not yet have a substance in his lungs, thanks to which he can breathe - surfactants. They can be introduced immediately at birth, start artificial ventilation of the lungs and thereby support gas exchange. It also became possible to give nutritional subsidies not through the gastrointestinal tract, but through a vein with special substances that are already ready for inclusion in metabolism. There are many other adaptations: the creation of a thermal regime, humidity close to intrauterine.

Technologically, the frontier could move indefinitely. If desired, you can simulate a situation where a woman is not needed at all to bear a child. But I have already said that scientists have established that the age of 22-23 weeks is the minimum period at which the cells of the cerebral cortex can develop postnatally. Still, the main criterion for the normal development of a child is not technological achievements, but the capabilities of the brain.

Is it true that they try to save all 500-gram children only in Russia and Turkey, and in other countries - only if the child has high chances for a normal life?

This is not true. In all countries where the WHO concept has been adopted, these children are subject to mandatory medical care. But there are nuances. If the baby was born between the 23rd and 25th weeks, parents can refuse resuscitation. To do this, in many countries there is a legal standard, reminiscent of the law on euthanasia.

There is a special service in perinatal centers. When it becomes clear that preterm labor has begun, representatives approach relatives - the father and, if possible, the mother. “We assume that a baby will be born with such and such parameters. In this case, there are such and such development risks ... You have the right to choose either full resuscitation or palliative care. And depending on what the parents decide, the doctors act.

Photo: Sergey Pyatakov / RIA Novosti

In Russia, you can also choose a palliative today, right?

This is not prescribed by law. Today, even if it is clear that a child has pathologies incompatible with life, they must be saved to the last. It happens that parents can sign a paper on their own that they would not like resuscitation, but this has no legal force. Parents can say, “Look, he is breathing, breathing. He opened his eyes. Let's revive him now!" And we lost time, which in this case is very important. This child initially has little chance, but it has become even less. And a situation may arise when parents accuse the doctors that their child was not specially treated, “talking teeth”.

The medical community is very concerned about this ambiguous position of doctors. And we have a number of proposals to solve the problem of their protection.

What exactly is offered?

Legislative initiative to allow parents to independently decide whether resuscitation care is appropriate for a child born between the 23rd and 25th weeks. Naturally, all this should be discussed. It is necessary to involve the public in the discussion: these are lawyers, doctors, patient communities, representatives of religious denominations.

The Ministry of Health has now prepared new criteria for newborns born too early. In particular, it is proposed not to register such a child until he has lived seven days. Maybe this will fix the situation, protect doctors from murder charges?

There are a lot of pitfalls here. In Russia, there was a similar law on kilogram children. They were assisted from birth, but until the age of seven days the child was considered a fetus. If he died, then his mortality already went into other criteria, it was not considered the death of a newborn.

There are not many children born with extremely low rates, they simply cannot influence the demographic structure in any way. But if there is such a situation that you can not register for up to seven days, it seems to me that even more claims may arise against doctors regarding the failure to provide assistance.

These are very difficult questions. On the one hand, parents can say: you did not save the child. And others, on the contrary, will say: why are you torturing him in vain? And imagine a resuscitator who may be faced with an ethical choice: he has only one ventilator in the hospital, and a 23-week-old baby has been on it for the 40th day. And then a 32-week-old is born in the hospital. He needs help, hold him for three days on the device, and then the baby will cope on his own. In the first case, there will certainly be a disabled person. And in the second - almost healthy. And what should a doctor do?

Are you speaking theoretically now or do such situations occur?

We cannot have this in federal centers. We have enough equipment. I just illustrated with an example that the issue of nursing such children is the most difficult, all aspects are in common in it - from medical to ethical and religious.

Photo: Sergei Krasnoukhov / RIA Novosti

“The issue of infant mortality has always been political”

The issue of infant mortality has recently become political. Perhaps that is why patient scandals associated with maternity hospitals are developing so sharply?

The issue of infant mortality has always been political. This is a socially significant parameter that determines the position of the country in terms of development. In our country as a whole, infant mortality has significantly decreased over ten years. However, in the last two years the rate of decline has slowed down. Our government says it's bad. From the point of view of doctors, this is not entirely true. There are objective reasons that cannot be overcome with a swoop.

The primary decrease in mortality occurred due to the high-quality saturation of hospitals with equipment, due to the construction of perinatal centers. This gave immediate results. And now these figures have reached a plateau. Another thing is that a plateau, for example, in Kaliningrad, St. Petersburg, is one thing. There mortality rates are at the European level. That is very low. And there are regions where mortality is high - the Altai Territory, the Jewish Autonomous Region, Magadan. There is a lack of doctors, a lack of equipment, very long distances, routing difficulties. And it's very difficult to do anything about it.

We are not compact Switzerland. We have a huge country with difficult geographical conditions. There are regions where we cannot even deliver a woman by helicopter. At one time I spent a lot of time in Chukotka, watching the obstetric service. Often, if a premature baby is born there, you will not help him in any way.

There are no good hospitals there?

Everything is there, but in one city - in Anadyr. And if a woman gave birth in another place, then often she can be cut off from the world. There are periods when even planes do not fly: a snowstorm, something else. And with routing too you will not guess. Because when you are expecting your first child, you are not going to give birth at 24 weeks. This is if the situation with childbirth repeats, then you can plan something, come closer to specialized care at the “dangerous” time ...

Is it true that there have been more premature births lately?

No, their number is stable. This is approximately 7-10 percent of all newborns. Significantly increased their survival rate.

One of the most "inciting" topics on parenting Internet forums is that children who are "culled out" by nature have a bad effect on the quality of the gene pool. Is there any reason to think so?

In order for "survivors" to be able to influence the population, there must be a lot of them in percentage terms. For example, there are very few 26-week-olds - no more than two percent of all births. It can't affect anything in any way.

I know that at one time they discussed: what will happen if my child marries in the future someone who was once premature, will the gene pool suffer? Firstly, I can say that, as for children born after the 30th week, they are completely healthy, adapted and no different from others. They themselves give birth to beautiful healthy children, we have already seen many generations. The risk of preterm birth is not inherited. And usually premature babies are shaken, they are a lot of work. So in terms of development, these children can give odds to others.

As for children born at 5-6 months old, when they catch up with their peers, it is important that parents continue their active life with them, and not engage in a protective regime. We need songs, dances, sports. These children have behavioral patterns. But now there are centers that supervise such families. If you take care of children, everything will be fine. I look at these kids regularly. And I have a much more optimistic outlook. For example, the frequency of chronic diseases among them is approaching the norm. That is, it is not higher than in the population. Everyone has a chance for a full life, even the most hopeless, at first glance, child.

Your baby was born prematurely | Regional Perinatal Center

Premature babies

If your baby is born too early, the joy of having a baby can be overshadowed by health concerns and thoughts about the possible consequences.

Instead of returning home with the baby, holding him and caressing him, you will have to stay in the department, learn to cope with the fear of touching the baby, realize the need for treatment and various manipulations, get used to the complex equipment that surrounds him.

In this situation, not only your baby needs help, you need it too! The best assistants are your loved ones, their love and care, as well as professional advice and recommendations from doctors and psychologists. This section of articles will help you improve your knowledge of preterm infant care, development and nutrition.

Your help for the baby

Previously, parents were often not allowed into the neonatal unit and, especially, into the intensive care unit because of the fear of infection of the baby, but now the contact of the parent with the child is recognized as desirable and is prohibited only in exceptional cases (for example, if parents have acute infections)

Close communication between you and your baby is very important from the first days of his life. Even very immature premature babies recognize the voices and feel the touch of their parents.

The newborn needs this contact. Studies have shown that it greatly contributes to the faster adaptation of an immature child to new conditions and the stabilization of his condition. The baby's resistance to therapy increases, he absorbs large amounts of food and quickly begins to suck on his own. Contact with the child is important for parents. Taking part in the care of the baby, they feel their involvement in what is happening and quickly get used to a new role, especially when they see how he reacts to their presence.

By constantly and attentively observing the baby, parents can notice the smallest changes in his condition before others. In addition, communication in the hospital is a good practice that will undoubtedly come in handy after discharge. For parents, early physical contact with the baby is very valuable, because it allows them to feel him, despite the incubator and other obstacles, and show him their love.

Treatment in the neonatal intensive care unit requires parents to have full confidence in all medical staff.

Care of premature babies in the hospital

Many premature babies cannot breathe, suckle and regulate their body temperature sufficiently after birth. Only in the last weeks of pregnancy is the maturation of the lungs, gastrointestinal tract, kidneys, brain, which regulates and coordinates the work of all organs and systems.

Constant attention requires fluid loss due to the immaturity of the skin of premature babies and the insufficiency of thermoregulation processes. Modern approaches focused on nursing premature babies help to cope with these problems.

Heat regulation incubator

Premature babies are very susceptible to temperature fluctuations. At the same time, clothing can interfere with the monitoring of the baby's condition and its treatment. That is why an incubator is used to provide the conditions necessary for premature babies. It maintains a certain temperature and humidity, which change as the child grows. When the body weight of a premature infant reaches 1500-1700 g, he can be transferred to a heated bed, and after reaching a weight of 2000, most premature babies can do without this support. There are no strict rules here: when nursing children with low body weight, doctors are guided by the severity of the condition of each premature baby and its degree of maturity.

In incubators, very young premature babies are placed in special "nests" - soft hemispheres in which the baby feels comfortable and assumes a position close to intrauterine. It must be protected from bright lights and loud noises. For this purpose, special screens and coatings are used.

Critical treatments during the first days of life for premature babies with low and very low birth weight:

Use of an incubator or heated bed.

Oxygen supply for respiratory support.

If necessary, artificial ventilation of the lungs or breathing using the CPAP system.

Intravenous administration of various drugs and fluids.

Carrying out parenteral nutrition with solutions of amino acids, glucose and fat emulsions.

Don't worry: not all premature babies need such extensive treatment!

Mechanical ventilation and CPAP for respiratory support

When it comes to nursing, the supply of oxygen is of the utmost importance for premature babies. In a child born before the 34-35th week of pregnancy, the ability of the lungs to work independently is not yet sufficiently developed. The use of a constant flow of air with oxygen, which maintains a positive airway pressure (CPAP), leads to an increase in blood oxygen saturation.

This new method made it possible to dispense with the majority of even very immature children without mechanical ventilation. The need for intubation of children has disappeared: during treatment with CPAP, oxygen is supplied through short tubes - cannulas that are inserted into the nasal passages. CPAP or mechanical ventilation is continued until the lungs can function at full capacity on their own.

In order for the lungs to expand and remain in this state in the future, a surfactant is needed - a substance that lines the alveoli from the inside and reduces surface tension. Surfactant is produced in sufficient quantities starting from the 34-35th week of pregnancy. Basically, it is by this time that the formation of the lungs is completed. If the baby was born earlier, modern technologies allow the introduction of surfactant into the lungs of premature babies immediately after their birth.

Parenteral nutrition - giving nutrient solutions by vein

Premature babies, especially those born weighing less than 1500 g, are not able to get and absorb enough nutrients, even when fed through a tube. For the rapid growth of the baby, a large amount of nutrition is needed, and the size of the stomach is still very small, and the activity of digestive enzymes is also reduced. Therefore, such children are given parenteral nutrition.

Special nutrients are injected into a vein using infusion pumps that deliver solutions slowly at a predetermined rate. In this case, amino acids necessary for building proteins, fat emulsions and glucose, which are sources of energy, are used. These substances are also used for the synthesis of a number of hormones, enzymes and other biologically active substances. Additionally, minerals and vitamins are introduced.

Gradually, the volume of enteral nutrition increases, and parenteral nutrition decreases until it is completely canceled.

Premature infants with gastrointestinal disease require parenteral nutrition for a longer period of time.

By the time your grown baby is discharged from the hospital, everything should be well prepared at home. And this applies not only to the environment, clothes and means of caring for the child.

All family members must be ready to receive the baby. Of course, the main care will fall on the shoulders of the parents. Although you have already gained some experience in the hospital, it is important to feel the support of others, especially in the early days.

Older children can also help. The discharge of your baby is a great joy that you want to share with all your relatives.

While you are getting used to your new role, it is important that nothing distracts you from communicating with your child. Now all the care and responsibility for the baby lies entirely with you. Everything you need to take care of him should be at hand.

Getting ready to be discharged from the hospital

Before you are discharged, you must make sure that:

The crib, bath and changing area are prepared. A crib should be placed in the parents' bedroom, the child should not be left alone even at night. A stroller is also required. you have baby milk that was recommended by the doctor before discharge (if the child is on mixed or artificial feeding). As a rule, this is a specialized medical product. You need a certain number of small bottles and teats of the appropriate size, as well as a sterilizer. All premature babies will need pacifiers.
You have fully mastered breastfeeding or bottle feeding.
If your baby is not sucking the full amount of milk from the breast and is supplementing from a bottle, you have purchased a breast pump that you have learned to use; you may also need it if you have a lot of breast milk.
You have asked your doctor how often your child's weight should be monitored.
If your baby still needs medicines, you have enough medicines at home. And you know exactly how and when to give them to your child.
You know which warning signs to look out for.
After the baby is discharged, a pediatrician and a neonatologist will look after the baby, to whom you will give the discharge summary from the hospital.
You know how the hospital from which your child is being discharged will provide follow-up care after discharge.
You know which specialists and how often should examine your baby (ophthalmologist, neuropathologist, etc.).
All the emergency phone numbers you need are at your fingertips.

When can a child go home

This question is very difficult to answer because all children are different. The stay in the hospital can last from 6 days to 6 months, depending on the degree of prematurity of the child, the severity of his condition, as well as the presence of certain complications.

Of course, all parents look forward to the moment when the baby can be brought home. Long-term nursing of a premature baby is often a difficult test for you. But we must not forget that safety comes first, and the baby can be discharged home only when the doctors are confident in the stability of his condition. It is certainly in your interest as well.

The rate of increase in body weight and length

Weight gain is the main indicator of the growth of the baby and the adequacy of the treatment. The weight of the child, especially in the first days and weeks of life, is influenced by a number of factors: the presence of milk in the stomach (immediately after feeding), the time of bowel movement, the degree of filling of the bladder, the presence of edema. Therefore, if an edematous child does not gain weight for several days, and perhaps even loses it, do not worry. It should be remembered that children grow unevenly and periods of high weight gain alternate with lower ones. It is better to focus not on weight gain per day, but on the dynamics of this indicator over several days or a week.

It is currently accepted that in the interval corresponding to 28-34 weeks of pregnancy, the normal weight gain of the child is 16-20 g/kg per day. Then it is reduced to 15 g/kg.

It is also important to take into account the rate of increase in body length. With malnutrition, at first the child gains less weight (or even loses it), and with a more pronounced deficiency of nutrients, his growth is also disturbed.

The weight must not only increase at a certain rate, but must also correspond to the length of the baby. An important parameter characterizing the development of the baby is an increase in the circumference of the head. The brain most actively increases in size during the first 12–18 months of life. But an excessively rapid increase in head circumference, as well as a slowdown in its increase, indicate neurological disorders.

A premature baby can be discharged from the hospital if:

he is able to independently maintain the required body temperature;
does not need breathing support and constant monitoring of the work of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems;
can suck out the required amount of nutrition on its own;
does not need round-the-clock monitoring and frequent determination of biochemical or other indicators;
maintenance treatment can be done at home;
he will be under the supervision of a local pediatrician and neonatologist at the place of residence.

The decision to discharge home is made for each patient individually. In addition to the state of health of the baby, the degree of preparedness of parents, their ability to provide high-level care for a premature baby is also taken into account.

Feeding a premature baby after discharge

Breastfeeding is the ideal way to feed premature babies.

However, if the baby was born much premature and his birth weight did not exceed 1800-2000 g, his high nutritional requirements cannot be met by breastfeeding. The growth rate will be insufficient. Moreover, over time, the content of many nutrients, including protein, in milk decreases. And it is the main material for building organs, and primarily brain tissue. Therefore, proteins must be supplied to the body of a premature infant in the optimal amount.

In addition, premature babies have a significantly increased need for calcium and phosphorus, which are essential for bone formation.

In order for the baby's nutrition to be complete even after being discharged from the hospital, special additives - "enrichers" are introduced into breast milk in a certain amount, already less than in the hospital. They make up for the lack of protein in it, as well as some vitamins and minerals. As a result, the child receives them in the optimal amount. The duration of their use will be determined by your doctor. If there is not enough milk or it does not exist at all, children born prematurely should be transferred to artificial feeding. Complementary feeding of premature babies is carried out with special children's dairy products designed for children with low birth weight. This baby milk is ideally suited to both the ability of immature children to digest and assimilate nutrients, and their needs.

Premature infant milk contains more protein, fat and carbohydrates than term infant milk, resulting in a higher calorie content. In specialized baby milk, the concentration of many minerals is higher, especially iron, zinc, calcium, phosphorus, as well as vitamins, including vitamin D. Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids of the Omega-3 and Omega-6 classes are introduced into such products, which are necessary for proper development of the brain and organ of vision, as well as nucleotides that contribute to the optimal development of immunity. However, when the child reaches a certain weight (2000-2500 g), you should gradually switch to feeding with standard baby milk, but not completely. Specialized baby milk can be present in the diet of a premature baby for several months. This time, as well as the volume of the product, will be determined by the doctor. He will answer all your questions about how to feed your baby.

At present, specialized children's dairy products have been developed and used to feed premature babies after discharge from the hospital. In its composition, it occupies an intermediate position between a specialized product for premature babies and regular baby milk. Your baby will be transferred to such baby milk while still in the hospital. You will continue to give it to your child at home, and the doctor, watching him, will tell you when it will be possible to switch to regular standard baby milk. If the baby was born with a very low body weight or is not gaining weight well, special baby milk can be used for a long time - up to 4 months, 6 or even 9months. The beneficial effect of such children's dairy products on the growth and development of the child has been proven in scientific studies.

Feeding needs for premature babies

Higher caloric intake because they need to gain weight faster than term babies.

More protein as premature babies grow faster.

More calcium and phosphorus for bone building.

More trace elements and vitamins for growth and development.

A premature baby grows faster than a term baby. Nutrition for such children is calculated taking into account body weight at birth, the age of the baby and its growth rate. As a rule, the calorie content of the daily diet is about 120-130 calories per 1 kg of body weight.