PrematureBirth: Hints for Survival PART 1

The joy of carrying her pregnancy to full term could not be compared to anything known to her. Beatrice Wanjiru was full of life; bright, outgoing and her enthusiasm for her baby could not be concealed. She was seven months months pregnant and eagerly waiting for the remaining two months to see her bundle of Joy. Her due date was 13th June. Unfortunately, her joy was short-lived. One morning she woke up to find her amniotic fluid was leaking.

Beatrice is among many women who have delivered way before their due dates, and talks to Emma Odaba.

I was unwell for some time during my pregnancy, and was on medication for three months. One morning at 5.00a.m, when I was seven months and two weeks pregnant, my waters broke and six hours later I gave birth to a baby boy whom I named Samuel Gicheha Ikenye.’

The baby weighed 1.3 kilograms but after two days, his birth weight dropped to 1.29 kilograms. This worried me but the nurses told me that it was normal for babies to lose weight immediately after birth, and then begin to gain so there was no cause for alarm. I was encouraged because I learnt that the same happens even with full-term babies. True to the nurses’ word, shortly afterwards, he gained weight again to 1.5 kilograms.

My doctor explained to me that the complication arose because my cervix was weak and could not carry the pregnancy to term. I am grateful that my baby is alive and is responding well to treatment. The doctors advised that once he weighs 1.7 kilograms, we will be discharged. My husband has been very supportive and he visits us daily in the hospital. I thank God for my baby, because he is coping well with the treatment he is receiving.

After talking to Beatrice, Emma Odaba talked to Doctor Gathua, a paediatrician, who gave the following advice on the care that should be given to prematurely born babies.

A baby born below 37 weeks of gestation is termed premature. If such a baby is not well taken care of, he/she can easily catch infections and this is quite risky since their immune system is not well developed.

Prematurely born babies are classified into three groups depending on their weight:

• Borderline pre-term baby – a baby that weighs from 1.5 to 2.4 kilograms
• A pre-term baby – a baby that weighs from 1.0 to 1.5 kilograms.
• An extreme pre-term baby – a baby that weighs below 1 kilogram e.g. 970grams.

Immediately a premature baby is born, it has to be put in an incubator with regulated temperatures.

A premature baby is not able to suck or swallow because it’s reflexes have not developed fully, therefore a nasalgastic tube commonly known as NG tube is used to feed it. The baby is given supplement fluids to prevent it from dehydration. In case the baby gets sick, it is put on antibiotics.

However, for an extreme pre-term baby, special attention is needed and doctors have to come up with daily rations for its feeds because if it overfeeds, it vomits. This happens because the lungs are not fully developed so the baby has difficulty in breathing.

Prematurely born babies have a lot of complications, for example, they easily become hypothermic (become cold), because their skin has not yet matured enough to prevent cold from penetrating.

They are not able to suck or swallow, since their muscles have not matured. Since the babies are born when their lungs have not yet matured they become apnoeic (a tendency of forgetting to breath) and therefore must be hooked onto oxygen.

A prematurely born baby, can be delivered through a normal delivery or a Caesarean section depending on the circumstances that face the mother at the time of delivery. For example, in case a mother develops bleeding complications before birth she can undergo a C-section.

A mother may undergo normal labour just like any other mother giving birth: the only difference will be that she is giving birth to a baby before its due date. If good care is given, the baby develops very well and with time cannot be differentiated from a full term baby.

END:BL 10/58-59