Modern medicine can keep prematurely born children alive and support their development so that they are no different from full-term newborns. And yet the degree of adaptation depends on the period at which the child was born. Sometimes it is possible to avoid unpleasant consequences, and sometimes the features of development remain for life. About what the consequences of premature births for child development may be and will be discussed below.
The normal duration of pregnancy in women ranges from 38 to 42 weeks. Children born after the full 37 weeks of pregnancy, regardless of their birth weight, are termed newborn babies. Children who were born before the 37th week are the so-called prematurely born or premature babies. Currently, modern medicine can keep alive babies born before the 27th and even before the 25th week of pregnancy. These newborns weigh far less than children should weigh at birth - it happens that they weigh slightly more than 500 g. Despite their immense immaturity at birth and the many dangers that await them, such children often grow outwardly quite normal. Of course, this fact of prematurity can not pass absolutely without a trace. Most often, children suffer from internal organs and the brain. That is, children subsequently lag behind mentally, although this is not necessary and depends on many factors.
Staying in the ward for prematurely born, as a rule, long. This can take several months, until the child has gained a normal weight for his age and his organs will not start working independently. In the future, the care of such a child goes beyond the usual preventive visits and vaccination of infants and often requires highly qualified counseling and development support. There are also methods for diagnosing early detection of defects, such as hearing and vision. Early diagnosis allows you to provide effective assistance at the right time and in the right amount.
Necessary equipment
To save the life of a child born prematurely, modern equipment is needed. One such device is an incubator that practically replaces the uterus. There the child is in conditions as close as possible to those in which the children develop before the due date. There necessarily maintained the correct temperature and humidity. Unfortunately, until now the main technical problem - such an incubator is too loud in the work. For a child, this does not matter, and those who work side by side, gives a lot of inconvenience.
With the consequences of premature births, it is often necessary to connect the child to the camera, which for him is a respiratory replacement. Also, it is connected to the device for controlling vital organs. This device shows the frequency of heartbeats, breathing, oxygenation of the blood, its blood pressure. Its task is to prevent cardiac and respiratory arrhythmia and stop breathing.
During the care of a prematurely born child, the device providing its nutrition, which can be initially administered parenterally, i.e., intravenously, is also used. So in the body of the child are delivered proteins, fats and carbohydrates to ensure proper development. A special technique is also used for this purpose using the appropriate blood vessels (the total thin line does not withstand such a large overload) and a pump that delivers nutritional ingredients in conditions of absolute sterility.
Details of the consequences of preterm delivery for child development
Problems with breathing
Babies born prematurely almost always have breathing problems, because their lungs are too poorly developed. They still have a small content of surfactants, thus reducing the surface tension of the alveoli, which prevents them from sticking together on exhalation. In the lungs of a healthy fetus, all this is formed in physiological conditions around 35 weeks of pregnancy. Prematurely born children (before the 35th week of pregnancy) are almost deprived of the opportunity to breathe normally. Surface-active substances are administered by inhalation through the tube of intubation directly into the respiratory tract, thereby helping children with breathing disorders. This also avoids many complications of prematurity (eg, neurological and infectious). The production of surface-active substances in the form of medications was a turning point in the rescue of premature infants. Unfortunately, some premature babies, especially the least mature, need artificial ventilation for a month.
Sometimes these children develop chronic lung diseases, which is associated with the immaturity of lung tissue. In such cases, the use of additional drugs used to stimulate the growth of lung tissue. They are especially vulnerable to the destructive effects of oxygen and are injected under pressure to save lives.
In the future, children. Born prematurely, often become patients with special needs. The effect of chronic lung disease can lead to a greater propensity for spastic bronchitis, dyspnea during infection, or an increased risk of developing asthma.
Nerve tissue
In premature babies, the brain is still very immature. There are good and bad sides in this. Adverse events are the very high sensitivity of immature nervous tissue to mechanical damage and the lack of sufficient oxygen. The positive thing, however, is that the more immature brain has a greater plasticity and the tissues can be functionally replaced by those areas that were damaged at an early age. Nevertheless, the damage to nerve tissues significantly affects the further functioning of the child's nervous system.
Children born before the term are more often prone to neuroses. They are more prone to emotions, more active, require a special approach. With such children it is often not easy to cope, they often cry, eat poorly, sleep a little. Such unpleasant symptoms eventually pass, but the sediment remains for life.
Premature birth - mother and child
Immediately after premature birth, the woman must feed the baby. In case the child is not able to eat independently, he is injected with milk of the mother pentally, that is forced. It is very important that in the first hours and days of life, milk by any means enters the child's body. Thanks to this, the child's gastrointestinal tract ripens faster and learns to digest food. Milk of the mother also provides the baby with antibodies that allow you to fight against bacteria and protect it from infection.
Although the mother does not initially breast-feed a prematurely born child permanently, she still needs to keep all the milk. Sooner or later, the moment of direct contact of the child with the mother will come. If the mother managed to keep the production of milk or stimulate it again - this will be the best help for the adaptation of the child. The child is already able to coordinate sucking with swallowing, so you can try to apply it to your chest. Preterm infants do not lose the instinct of sucking, so they quickly realize that they need it. If the mother's milk comes in sufficient quantities, the children quickly gain the right weight and are on the mend. They have fewer complications than those who are nurtured artificially.
The role of touch and tactile contact
Long before the beginning of feeding, the mother is invited to various forms of contact with the child: touching, stroking, embracing, transferring heat, listening to the sound of heartbeats. Mothers allow to hug the child for a while after extraction from an incubator, to press it to itself, to stroke. This method of caring for children was very useful for premature babies. This gives advantages both for the development of the child and for the mother.
The mother must touch her child, talk to him, sing to him. She is simply asked to remove jewelry, to put sleeves to the elbow and wash her hands before putting them in the incubator. Mom thus gives the child only "good" bacteria for the skin, so that it becomes more resistant to nosocomial organisms.
Psychological connection
Many mothers who gave birth prematurely suffer from depression. This is slightly different from other mothers with postpartum depression. They have a huge sense of guilt. They often wonder why premature births occurred and what they are to blame for here. And even if a woman does not speak out loud about her doubts, the neonatologist supports her and gives hope that they can cope with many problems.
The presence of a child near the mother allows her to believe that she can do a lot for him. She can see how the baby's heartbeat changes when he touches it. He ceases to cry, and then becomes calmer and falls asleep. His mother gets the confidence that she can cope with problems.
When can I leave home?
Often there are three, four months, until the prematurely born child reaches a weight of 500 to 1800-1900 grams. A child can be discharged home only when the doctor is sure that he can breathe independently and eat, according to his weight, and the mother will cope with the child at home. During their stay in the hospital, the staff learns to care for a premature baby. It is also important to have the possibility of further contact with the hospital (for example, by phone) if the first difficulty arises.