Preterm Babies

According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2016), preterm birth are the birth that happened before 37 ended weeks of pregnancy and is one of the number reason of newborn deaths and the second prominent cause of deaths in children below five. The preterm babies have chances of an amplified risk of illness, disability and death. In the first weeks, the complications of premature birth may include: breathing problems, heart problems, brain problems, temperature control problems, gastrointestinal problems, blood problems, metabolism problems, immune system problems. Long-term complications includes cerebral palsy, impaired cognitive skills, vision problem, hearing problems, dental problems, behavioral and psychological problems, chronic health issues.

Undeveloped lungs are especially found in children that are born premature. A premature baby is classified as one who is born before thirty-seven weeks. Premature babies have a higher chance of developing more health problems, and usually stay in the hospital longer than healthy babies. Premature babies also have the potential to have long-term health problems

Premature babies sometimes have apnea. It may happen together with a slow heart rate. Respiratory distress syndrome or RDS is a breathing problem most common in babies born before 34 weeks of pregnancy.” Babies with RDS don’t have a protein called surfactant that keeps small air sacs in the lungs from collapsing. “Intraventricular hemorrhage or IVH is bleeding in the brain. It usually happens near the ventricles in the center of the brain. A ventricles is a space in the brain that’s filled with fluid. Patent ductus ateriosus or PDA is a heart problem that happens in the connection between two major blood vessels near the heart. If the ductus do not close properly after birth, a baby can have breathing problems or heart failure. Heart failure is when enough blood can’t get pumped into the heart causing it to shut down. Necrotizing enter colitis (NEC) is a problem with a baby’s intestines. It causes feeding problems, a swollen belly and diarrhea. It sometimes happens 2 to 3 weeks after a premature bay has been born. Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is an abnormal growth of blood vessels in the eye. ROP can lead to vision loss. Jaundice is when a baby's eyes and skin look yellow. A baby has jaundice when his liver isn't fully developed or isn't working well. Anemia is when a baby doesn’t have enough healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen to the rest of the body. Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a lung condition that can develop in premature babies as well as babies who have treatment with a breathing machine. Babies with BPD sometimes develop fluid in the lungs, scarring and lung damage. Premature babies often have trouble fighting off germs because their immune systems are not fully formed. Infections that may affect a premature baby include pneumonia, a lung infection; sepsis, a blood infection; and meningitis, an infection in the fluid around the brain and

This could lead to different types of diseases such as; BPD (Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia) , Asthma, or even SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). BPD is more commonly found in premature infants but in some cases healthy babies can also get this disease. One of the reasons why BPD is common in premature babies is because their immune systems are weak. BPD is from damage to the lungs caused by mechanical ventilation (respirator) and long-term use of oxygen. This occurs in premature babies because a lot of time they have to be put on oxygen to help them breath until their lungs become stronger. When an infant is diagnosed with a chronic lungs disease it can lead to other types of infections or complications. If a baby has to be put on a ventilator it could cause complications with their lungs. Ventilators force breathing which means that the ventilators will be forcing high oxygen levels into the lungs of an infant or premature baby. This could possibly cause damage to their lungs. Another chronic lung disease that is commonly found in babies is SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). SIDS is an unexplained death, it usually happens while the baby is sleeping, it can happen to a healthy baby who is less than a year old. Some physicians say that the cause of SIDS is from the brain stem being defected; the brain stem controls breathing. Out of 60,000

Approximately 740,000 women per year use at least one illegal substance during their pregnancy (“Birth Defect Statistics”). These substances can range from marijuana to cocaine. Premature birth is defined as the birth of a child on or before thirty-seven weeks of pregnancy. There are around 500,000 premature births per year (“Preterm Birth”). It is hard to directly correlate premature birth solely to drug use, since most women that use illicit drugs during their pregnancy also smoke and drink. However, a recent study shows that around sixteen percent of women that only use drugs during pregnancy have given birth to a premature infant, and these are only the women that admitted to using these drugs (“Causes and Risk Factors”). Negative effects

Postnatal respiratory complications among newborns are common. The most commonly reported cause of neonatal respiratory distress is transient tachypnea of the newborn (TTN), with an estimated incidence of 1% to 2% of in all newborns.1

How has technology improved the chances of healthier premature infants? The youngest known survivor or prematures was born at 21 months and 5 weeks in 1987. Technology has changed lives for premature babies, there is so many new ways to help premature babies. The nicu is where it all started and with the way technology is going, I don’t see it slowing down or stopping. Technology for premature infants has changed so much over the years this is gonna show how the new technology that has been improved the chances of healthier premature infants. Technology has improved baby care through the nicu/peapod, The respiratory assistance/feeding methods, and other equipment/ methods. Up to 450,000

Respiratory distress syndrome in premature infants caused by pulmonary surfactant deficiency with incomplete lung development (Santosham et al, 2013). It can also occur as a consequence of neonatal infection (Sinha et al, 2012).

According to the WHO preterm birth complications are the leading cause of death among children under the age of 5, and responsible for nearly 1 million deaths in 2013.1 Many therapies have emerged with advancements in perinatal and neonatal care including antenatal steroids, exogenous surfactants and ventilation advancements that have lead to the rise in the survival of premature infants. However, prematurity is still associated with many morbidities, such as need for prolonged ventilatory support, intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), periventricular leukomalacia (PVL), bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Of these, respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) is the most common cause of morbidity, with an incidence of 42% in infants weighing 501-1500gms.2

Respiratory distress syndrome – “an acute lung disease present at birth, which usually affects premature babies. Layers of tissue called hyaline membranes keep the oxygen that is breathed in from passing into the blood. The lungs are said to be ‘airless’.” (https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/respiratory+distress+syndrome)

Preterm birth refers when a baby is born before or within 37weeks, meaning anytime between 20 to 37 weeks. Each week marks a development stage, it is significantly important for a baby to reach the maximum weeks necessary for a high percentage of survival and well-being. Per Makena (hydroxyprogesterone caproate injection used to lower the risk of preterm birth), a baby born at 25 weeks has a better rate of survival than the 22 or 23 weeks old. In U.S.A the ratio is 1:10 born prematurely, meaning 400,000 babies born too soon.

Different from the problems had with infection and disease but just as important is getting oxygen to pre-term neonates' lungs. Movement of oxygen from one-point to the next happens within a diffusion gradient which goes from high to low (Karlsen, 2006), and before birth a lot of the blood from the right side of the heart can't enter the lungs because of more resistance to flow in the blood vessels in the fetal lungs (Kattwinkel & Bloom, 2011). All the oxygen used by a fetus diffuses across a placental membrane from a mothers' blood to the baby's blood (Evansville, 2001). Approximately 10% of newborns will require assistance to begin a normal breathing pattern (Kattwinkel & Bloom, 2011). Although 10% seems like a small number it really is too high and we should have some type of machine of sorts in this modern day of age.

When premature babies are born they do not have fully developed lungs because the lungs are one of the last organs in the body to be produced. The alveoli in the baby’s lungs have not yet started making surfactant, which is typically produced when the baby is 34-36 weeks’ gestation. When the alveoli do not have surfactant, the alveoli want to naturally collapse. Surfactant helps to keep the alveoli open and create more surface area for gas exchange. If you were to look at the infant’s lungs using a microscope, you can see that lungs look as though they are solid from the areas where the alveoli have collapsed, also known as atelectasis. To try to compensate for the atelectasis, “the respiratory bronchioles, alveolar ducts, and some of the alveoli dilate to decrease airway resistance and increase gas exchange” (Jardins 476). As the disease worsens, the walls of the alveoli become lined with a hyaline membrane that is made up of dead cells and proteins that make it nearly impossible for gas exchange to occur. It makes the lungs stiff and much harder to ventilate. With the lungs being noncompliant, the baby starts to become hypoxic. When the infant becomes hypoxic, blood is shunted away from the other organs in the body and venous return and cardiac output are decreased. “Hypoxemia is common in pulmonary hypertension (PH) and may be partly related to ventilation/perfusion mismatch, low diffusion

Pregnancy is normally the best and the happiest stage of any woman, but it can also be uncertain because anything can go wrong if you do not know exactly what to do. In order to understand the reasons of why Preterm Birth occurs, it is important to know what it is and how risky it can be. Preterm Birth is also known as Premature labor which mainly begins after “20 weeks but before 37 completed week’s gestations. Approximately 12.9 million babies worldwide are born too early every year representing an incidence of PTB of 9.6%” (Berghella, pp. 2, 8). Baby Center Medical Advisory Board says that about 12 percent of babies

Preterm infants are born during the late cannalicular to early saccular stages of lung development, which corresponds to the period when respiratory bronchioles capable for gas exchange and type II alveolar