Special unit at hospital focuses on premature babies
DISABILITIES A RISK: Doctors zero in on health complications for preterm infants
It took six long weeks before Andrea Sandhu could finally hold her twin sons, Kai and Nikhil, at the same time.
“It was an amazing, sort of surreal experience at that point,” Sandhu said.
The twins were what doctors call “micro-preemies,” those born before 26 weeks into a pregnancy that typically lasts 40. They weighed a combined 31/2 pounds.
Early in 2012 came the surprise news Sandhu was having twins, then the shock of pre-term labour in May. Heartache followed, when Nikhil died six weeks after birth.
Tuesday, World Prematurity Day will be observed across the globe.
As buildings are bathed in purple light for the day, Sandhu will be thinking of the team in B.C. Women’s Hospital’s newborn intensive care unit (NICU) who worked tirelessly to care for her boys and to comfort and answer her and her husband’s questions during the stressful ordeal.
Three-quarters of all neonatal deaths are related to premature birth. About one in 12 births in Canada is premature.
Of the roughly 44,000 births in B.C. each year, some 3,700 come before 37 weeks into the pregnancy.
“I think it’s an issue that most people maybe aren’t aware of — how prevalent prematurity is and the long-term effects it can have,” Sandhu said.
Kai is now three years old, a healthy little preschooler who enjoys the outdoors and riding his bike, and loves trains, cars and trucks.
“We have been very lucky,” Sandhu said, “but some other families do have to deal with some longterm health issues,”
Dr. Horacio Osiovich, division head of neonatology at B.C. Women’s Hospital, said more babies are being delivered preterm as doctors are better able to discover and monitor health complications in utero.
Survival rates are also on the rise, Osiovich said, though “the baby who survives may have a lifetime of disabilities” that can include learning disabilities, visual impairment and hearing problems, “so it is a huge issue for the population.”
Such complications can have profound impacts on families and on health care, “so the cost of prematurity is quite, quite high,” he said.
The theme of World Prematurity Day this year is Kangaroo Mother Care — prolonged, continuous skin-on-skin contact between preemies and their caregivers, similar to a mother kangaroo carrying her newborn in her pouch.
“Doing this skin-to-skin care, what we found is there was an increase in breastfeeding rate, there was better weight gain, there was much better mother-baby bonding and there was better developmental outcome in these babies,” Osiovich said.
“It is quite, quite amazing, especially in third world countries. They are able to drop the mortality by 40 per cent.”
To bring families even closer to their newborns, the hospital is raising money for a new 70-room NICU tower where families will be able to stay around the clock. It’s expected to open in 2017. Osiovich said the B.C. Women’s NICU has one of the best outcomes for preemies in the country. Its multidisciplinary team includes physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, occupational therapists, social workers and dietitians, but families play a crucial role and become “part of the team,” he said.
“It is amazing supporting the families and supporting these very tiny and fragile babies.
“To see them leaving the nursery and have a happy, healthy life is very rewarding.”