World Prematurity Day was first created in the year 2011 to improve the awareness for the millions of children born premature every year. November 17th has become one of the most important day of the year to highlight every year the challenges and burden of preterm babies. Approximately 1 in 10 babies are born preterm. In about half of these pre-terms the cause of prematurity is unknown. Though rapid advances have been achieved in managing premature babies, these preterm babies have a huge vulnerability to various complications. But with the latest management techniques and advances, all these complications have been minimized.
Managing these pre-terms, especially extreme premature babies is a huge challenge to all medical staff involving Neonatologist, Pediatricians, Pediatric surgeon, Ophthalmologist, Nursing staff, Occupational therapist, Pharmacist and all other medical personnel. The survival rate of preterm babies varies in each country and in each hospital. Management of these babies also varies in each country and in each hospital. Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at KMCH has one of the most advanced tertiary care unit, where babies born as early as 24 weeks and weighing as low as 500grams are being managed with good outcome, comparable to many international Neonatal Intensive Care Units.
Facilities at NICU in KMCH include: a) Advanced ventilation including high frequency ventilation b) Inhaled Nitric Oxide therapy for very sick babies c) Individualized Total parenteral nutrition to provide adequate nutrition for all extreme premature and very low birth weight babies d) Neonatal transport incubator with ventilator, very essential to transfer babies from one hospital to another e) Advanced neonatal surgical services is also available
Speaking on the occasion Dr. Nalla G. Palaniswami, Chairman, KMCH said: Our hospital takes utmost care of premature babies and their mothers. KMCH is equipped with state-of-the-art neonatal intensive care unit, the service of which is comparable to the best in the world. A dedicated team of experts with specialization in handling and managing premature babies, offer their services round the clock to save the precious lives of infants.