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Premature Babies – The Little Angels Requiring Special and Extra Care

What do You Understand by Premature Babies?

It is a very well known fact that premature babies require special and extra care as compared to babies born at right time.

But who can be referred to as premature babies?

👉 Babies who take birth before they are 37 weeks older in their mother’s womb are considered as preemies or premature babies.

👉 These babies are often born underweight and lack nutrition.

👉 No wonder parents of such kids are nervous about the kid’s health and the complications that are expected to follow post birth.

👉 The earlier the baby gets birth, the higher are the risks that he or she is expected to survive.

👉 Any premature newborn are now days subjected to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for better care and medical attention.

 

Why do You Need to Give Extra Care to Premature Newborn Babies?

Give Extra Care to Premature Newborn Babies

Image by parenting.firstcry.com

Preemies, being born way to early than their expected date of delivery, usually never get the chance of fully developing in their mother’s womb.

This makes then less-equipped to get a normal life in our world.

No wonder this gives rise to different complications like difficulty in breathing, hypothermia etc.

Commonly certain body parts like their skin, immunity system, digestive tract and lungs remain under-developed making it difficult for them to lead a normal and healthy life.

 

🤱 This is the situation that calls for extra care to make life possible.

👨‍⚕️ Courtesy to the advanced medical research, now day’s preemies are admitted to NICU for better medical attention.

  • These units are built such that they provide the babies with nearly mother’s womb condition like the temperature, proper supply of oxygen suitable for the baby lungs etc.
  • So that surviving with under-developed system becomes possible until they attain the proper development.

 

Pro tips:

  • Newborns, subjected to incubation, usually go through numerous treatments to finally cope on their own in the world without any medical aid.
  • In general, a person, who was born premature, retains certain difficulties throughout their life, as they have support for immunity at the beginning of their life.

 

Special Care for Premature Babies at Neonatal Intensive Care Unit:

👩‍⚕️ Neonatal Intensive Care Unit can be described as the temporary home or living environment, which when provided to a premature baby, offers life support for certain time span to the kid.

👨‍⚕️ NICU is the special care unit that are prepared to provide such babies with special support and come with the below support system –

✅ Special equipments to provide extra care

✅ Specially trained staffs for child care

✅ Alarming and monitoring system

✅ Equipment for resuscitation and respiration

✅ Support of qualified pediatrician

✅ 24X7 care and support

✅ 24X7 laboratory support for medical tests

 

Pro tips:

  • It can be quite scary to understand that a baby is subjected to so many tests and equipment support at an NICU.
  • It is also quite overwhelming when you understand all these machines are the primary requirement for saving a premature life.

 

Special Care with Proper Monitoring and Alarm System:

Depending on which hospital you choose the machine support and support for alarm and monitoring varies.

The basic monitors in every NICU provides the doctors with detailed record of the pulse rate, rate of respiration, blood pressure, rate of heart beat and definitely the babies temperature.

IF you have good monitoring system at the hospital then you can also record the oxygen amount in the child’s blood by using the pulse oximeter.

How do all these figures get recorded?

👉 The baby’s arms, chest and legs are plug with patches of sticky cuffs and pads, which are connected to wires that transmit all the data from human body to the machine which in turn displays all the records in the display unit.

👉 If an emergency situation comes up in the NICU, the alarm gets auto –triggered to page for doctors and nurses on an urgent basis.

 

Extra Care of Premature Kids with Respiratory Issues:

 

Premature Kids with Respiratory Issues

Image by AboutKidsHealth

Depending on the type of respiratory issue the premature baby has, there are different types of respiratory devices that can aid the baby in every possible way to breath.

Some equipment for smooth respiration is –

  1. The Endotracheal Tube: This is the tube that is connected to the baby’s lung through the windpipe, providing the baby with oxygen and humidified type of air.
  2. The Ventilator: Ventilator or Respirator is the device that is connected to the Endotracheal tube in order to keep a track and monitor the amount of oxygen and the pressure of air and also keeps count of the total number of breathe the baby takes.
  3. C-PAP: C-PAP or Continuous Positive Airway Pressure is the respiratory aid that is given to babies who are capable to breathe all by themselves but find it difficult to pass the oxygen to lungs.
  1. The Oxygen Hood: Oxygen Hood is the box-like plastic make device, which when placed for the premature baby’s head and attached to a pipe in the child’s nasal cavity, helps in pumping oxygen down the windpipe to the baby.

 

Special Way to Feed a Premature Child:

Preemies, which are not completely developed at the time of birth, are often among those babies who require extensive care, especially when it comes to the food.

Some common ways to feed the baby are –

✅ Intravenous system is IV based device which is used by doctors for babies who are highly premature and have under-developed digestive system.

✅ Such devices are attached to the bay through his arms, legs or scalp and provide nutrition through blood channel.

✅ The ultimate or treatment for worst scenarios is the use of Umbilical catheter, where the catheter remains attached to the umbilical cord of the child.

  • Suggestion: Remember, using this system can lead you to certain damages like infection to the child, hence should be avoided unless an emergency.

✅  Feeding through nose and mouth: This is the feeding technology used when the baby is grown enough to digest formula or breast milk but doesn’t yet know how exactly to suck. The job is done by inserting flexible tube through Nasogastric and Orogastric tubes.

 

The Final Extra Care That a Mother Can Give:

🤱 Being a mother, the final extra care to provide your premature baby is to breastfeed the child and help in developing the immunity system.

A mother can technically feed the child with breast milk only when the baby is at least 35-37 weeks.

By this time the respiratory system of the baby has developed already.

Apart from breast feeding, a child’s mother joins in hands with bathing the child for the first time and by talking to the baby thoroughly.

🤰 Studies proved that babies recognize their mother’s voice from an early stage.

Conclusion:

Preemies or premature babies, born before the 35th day of pregnancy, come with certain complications.

Hence it is important to provide the child with extra care.

Extra care in most cases is possible at the NICU Areas.

Know the entire cure and provide your premature baby the best care.

 

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