Susanne with her baby
Qatar joined other countries and marked World Prematurity Day (WPD) today acknowledging the journeys of preterm infants and their families as well as raise awareness of the challenges faced by children born preterm and their families.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), every year an estimated 15 million infants worldwide are born preterm (over 3 weeks early). WPD is commemorated internationally on November 17.
“Preterm baby has well-developed senses and they have an immature brain. The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) team is giving full medical support and avoid painful or stressful experiences for the baby (noise, light, pain..),” said Dr Charlotte Tscherning Wel-Wel, Senior Attending Physician NICU at Sidra Medicine.
This year’s WPD is marked under the theme ‘Born Too Soon: Providing the right care, at the right time, in the right place.’
It connects with the benefits of family partnership in care for children, families, parents, health care professionals, policymakers and others.
“The parents have the fantastic capacity to provide positive experiences to their baby (skin to skin, talking to their baby..) this has an impact on the baby’s development,” Dr Charlotte. “Stay close to their baby, the parents are not visitors but partners. Do skin to skin, hold the baby, speak/sing to the baby. Access to the baby is 24/7,” she said.
Premature birth is a birth that takes place more than three weeks before the baby’s estimated due date. In other words, premature birth is one that occurs before the start of the 37th week of pregnancy. Premature babies, especially those born very early, often have complicated medical problems.
“There is the obstetrics and gynaecology division for mothers at Sidra Medicine. In case of a sick or preterm baby, the baby is transferred to NICU 3C or 4C, part of the neonatology department,” said Dr Charlotte.
The neonatal intensive care unit opened in April 2018 and since then more than 94 newborn babies requiring surgery have been admitted and more than 140 surgical operations have been carried out on these babies.
Many of the children admitted were born prematurely and weighed less than 1kg, meaning they represent the youngest and most vulnerable patients in modern medicine.
Susanne delivered her baby prematurely at Sidra Medicine. She shared her experience and has some practical recommendations on bonding with the premature baby. “Skin to skin contact is important and played a major role in helping our daughter get through the beginning stages of her life; this is something both my husband and I applied every day.”
“It was beautiful to see our daughter respond to the cuddles from myself and her father. Also, building up a store of breast milk without your newborn by your side was challenging. However, in retrospect, I am glad I was able to feed her from my supply for the first months of her life. After almost three months in the NICU, our baby daughter was thriving and I am grateful for the support I received from the medical team at Sidra Medicine, my husband, and our families,” she said.
