September 28, 2010
New, ‘Electronic Apgar’ To Predict Health of Premature Babies
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| Stanford University researchers say they’ve developed an electronic
version of the traditional Apgar score for newborns that can more accurately assess and predict the future health of premature infants.
The new system, called the “PhysiScore,” comes up with a “prediction
algorithm” by taking into account information like the newborn’s
gestational age and birthweight and then filtering in a stream of
real-time data routinely collected in neonatal intensive care units –
heart rate, respiratory rate and oxygen saturation.
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August 29, 2010
Australian mother cuddles baby 'back to life'
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A premature baby has been brought "back to life" after
his Australian mother, Kate Ogg, spent two hours touching, cuddling and
holding the baby.
The baby, Jamie, was
born at 27 weeks and weighed 2 lb. Doctors fought to save his life but
he was pronounced dead and given to his parents so they could say
goodbye at a Sydney hospital.
But his mother did not give up. She held baby Jamie against her and
talked to him for a couple of hours. In what is being described as a
"miracle," the baby began to show some signs of life.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/296619
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August 4, 2010
Teenagers high risk
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Teenagers 'risk premature babies'
(UKPA)
–
Jul 8, 2010
Teenagers are more likely to give birth prematurely and have a smaller baby than women in their 20s, research suggested.
Early birth risk is more pronounced if 14 to 17-year-olds have a second child, the study found.
The
research team, which monitored 50,000 women in north-west England over a
two-year period, is calling for better sex education and contraception.
It monitored 3,636 mothers between 14 and 17 at the time of birth, 7,506 aged 18 or 19, and 45,211 who were between 20 and 29.
Those
aged under 17 were found to be 21% more likely to have a premature baby
with their first pregnancy, and 93% more likely to have their second
baby early.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5i8_uxTWcFAVAjsFF1VAsDbzmO5zA
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June 2, 2010
Preterm birth risk could be halved with CerviLenz, progesterone
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CerviLenz is a simple, low-tech medical device that prompts a
“why didn’t I think of that?” response from many obstetricians.
Yet the device that quickly, accurately and inexpensively measures a pregnant
woman’s cervix could help answer the $26 billion-a-year problem of preterm
births in the United States.
And CerviLenz, the Chagrin Falls, Ohio, company commercializing
the device, is aiming at a yet-to-emerge market that would use its product as a
screening tool during all pregnancies to work with a progesterone
drug to halve the risk of that problem.
While that market develops, CerviLenz is targeting the obstetricians,
nurse-midwives, and labor and delivery nurses who need to know now whether a
patient is in preterm labor.
The cost of preterm birth is staggering. In a 2006 report, the National Academies put the cost at $26 billion a year in
the United States alone, which “constitutes a public health concern that costs
society” in hardship and grief, not to mention dollars.
And the problem is getting worse. “The preterm birth problem has been growing
over the last decade,” said Dr. Michael Ross, a maternal fetal medicine
specialist in Torrance, Calif., and medical director for CerviLenz. “Prematurity
accounts for 70 percent of prenatal morbidity. So it’s probably the most
significant factor in obstetrics, in terms of numbers.”
That’s why the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has been researching
preterm birth for decades. In the 1980s, the institutes studied 3,000 pregnant
women during its landmark Preterm Prediction Study. One of the conclusions of
the study: A short cervical length is the best predictor of preterm
birth.”That’s been replicated hundreds of times around the world,” said Dean
Koch, president and chief executive of CerviLenz.
Dr. Rosalyn Baxter-Jones, an obstetrician and gynecologist in San Diego,
Calif. knew the predictive value of cervical length, but she was aggravated by
the inability to accurately measure a patient’s cervix. The only test available
— vaginal ultrasound — was expensive and took a couple days to complete.
Patients who were in premature labor couldn’t wait.
“This is ridiculous,” Baxter-Jones remembers saying to herself. So she sat
down and sketched a device that could instantly measure the cervix. Within six
months, Baxter-Jones was testing a prototype.
Ross, chairman of the obstetrics and gynecology department at Harbor/UCLA Medical Center where
the device was being tested, thought it had “great potential as a screening
tool.” Eventually, Ross bought the device assets, hired Koch and helped start
CerviLenz to commercialize it.
http://www.medcitynews.com/2010/06/preterm-birth-risk-could-be-halved-with-cervilenz-progesterone/
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April 16, 2010
Premature baby survives toilet birth
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Four months premature baby boy Kian, warrior in Gaelic surprised everyone in Melbourne when he was born. This lucky baby was delivered in Monash Medical Center toilet bowl
Tamara Richardson underwent no contractions and haven’t had the slightest idea that she was about to give birth while on the toilet until she looked down and saw her baby inside the bowl.
Read More...
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February 9, 2010
Premature babies beat the odds and are Australia's toughest battlers
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BORN far too early, they are our tiniest treasures and Australia's toughest
battlers.
Each of these premature babies has overcome enormous odds to take their first
breath and gather the strength to get out of hospital and head home to their
families.
Tomorrow is National Premmie Day and to celebrate the fighting spirit of
these babies Victoria's three support groups have, for the first time, come
together so families can share their amazing stories of courage and
survival.
From the moment they are born premature babies face medical complications
including respiratory disorders, sight and hearing loss, liver and kidney
problems and jaundice.
After months in hospital, when they finally head home, they are prone to
infections, must stay indoors and require extra love and care.
Read More...
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January 25, 2010
Born at 23 wks, he fights to live on
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MUMBAI: If all goes well, Appu could well be Mumbai’s own miracle baby. He
doesn’t have a name yet but the nurses in the Neonatal Intensive Care
Unit (NICU) of Holy Family, Bandra, have christened him
Appu. He is possibly among the youngest prematurely born babies to make it to
three weeks of age anywhere in the world. He was reportedly born on December 23
while his mother was in her 23rd week of pregnancy.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Born-at-23-wks-he-fights-to-live-on/articleshow/5446679.cms
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January 25, 2010
Human touch of 'kangaroo care' helps tiny babies thrive
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BY RASHA MADKOUR
Associated Press
I never imagined I'd spend my first weeks as a mother pretending to be a
marsupial. But there I was, sitting in the neonatal intermediate care unit at
Jackson Memorial Hospital, hoping that a practice known as ``kangaroo care''
would help my preemie.
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/health/kids-health/story/1432314.html
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January 25, 2010
Music exposure helps premature babies gain weight and strength naturally, study finds
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NaturalNews) Babies born prematurely are at increased risk for a host of health
problems. But now research by Israeli scientists has uncovered a non-drug way to
help preemies gain weight and grow stronger quickly. A new study by Dr. Dror
Mandel and Dr. Ronit Lubetzky of the Tel Aviv Medical Center, which is
affiliated with Tel Aviv University's Sackler School of Medicine, found
premature infants exposed to thirty minutes of Mozart's music daily grew far
more rapidly than premature babies not exposed to the classical music.
http://www.naturalnews.com/028011_music_premature_babies.html
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October 26, 2009
Pacemaker surgery gives baby gift of life
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A TEAM of Melbourne doctors has saved the life of a premature baby by hooking her tiny heart up to an external pacemaker.
Five months ago, Taylor Gardner was born at 25 weeks with heart block - a condition that meant her heart was beating 50 times a minute, instead of a healthy rate of about 150.
Faced with her critical illness, a team of doctors at Monash Medical Centre decided to attempt an operation that, it is believed, had never been done before on a baby weighing just 540 grams.....
http://www.theage.com.au/national/pacemaker-surgery-gives-baby-gift-of-life-20091021-h91a.html
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October 26, 2009
1 in 10 Babies Born Premature
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The first attempt to measure the number of worldwide premature births has produced startling results, but many experts feel the true numbers are much higher. Thirteen million babies worldwide are born premature. Stated another way, one in ten of the world’s babies is born prematurely. One million of those babies will die as a result of that prematurity.
http://www.babychums.com/2009/10/1-in-10-babies-born-premature/
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October 26, 2009
Baby born on plane gets free flights for life
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A premature baby boy who was born on during a flight from Penang to Kuching, has been given free flights for life.
Expectant mother Liew Siaw Hsia had thought nothing of taking the AirAsia flight as she wasn't due for another 11 weeks.
But the baby had other ideas and mid-flight Liew started to feel labor pains. Luckily there was a doctor onboard who helped the 31-year-old mom give birth at 2,000 feet.
http://newslite.tv/2009/10/23/baby-born-on-plane-gets-free-f.html#
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