Care for premature babies

Premature birth almost always unexpected, they are afraid of the unknown outcome, feelings, after all, come to the fore fears about the health of the baby born prematurely. Modern methods of first aid and nursing of premature children born in the period from 26 to 28 weeks allow most children to save lives. But this requires the availability of modern equipment in hospitals. 

Children born in the period from 28 to 32 weeks, due to immaturity of the lungs will be more serious problems with their airway, and they are more likely to need help in the form of support (CPAP) or a ventilator. Also in this category of children often have other problems associated with immaturity: they are more vulnerable to infection, cerebrovascular disorders, hemorrhage, nonspecific enterocolitis (NEC), development of vision problems (retinopathy). For their nursing needs more time, effort, patience and resources. However, at the present level of neonatal care, a chance to survive in such children is sufficiently high, 95-98%. And many of these children grow up perfectly healthy in the future.

The "gold standard" of monitoring in the delivery room when providing initial intensive care for preterm infants is the performance monitoring method of pulse oximetry. The registration of indicators by the method of pulse oximetry begins with the first moments of life. A pulse oximeter is the most important monitoring tool in modern practice, the care of premature infants. This non-invasive medical device that checks oxygen levels in the blood and triggers an alarm as soon as it detects little threat change. So, at first glance, simple and small device, as it turns out, has quite a complex operation. If to describe in a few words, the pulse oximeter consists of several main parts: a sensor with LEDs (two different wave – infrared and red), microprocessor and display.

The sensors are configured in a special way, in the process of inclusion of the device they emit the light that passes through the tissue and is absorbed by the blood. The degree of absorption will depend on the degree of oxygen saturation of hemoglobin in the blood. All data processed by the microprocessor and are fed to the display in the form of digital values or graphs. Typically, the device remembers the previous values, which allow you to explore history visually. Without them, it is impossible to monitor in terms of the baby's life. And so it is important that each child had their own device.

Infusion therapy is currently one of the most important therapeutic agents for the care of premature infants, is designed to solve a wide range of medical tasks. None of the modern methods of intensive therapy and resuscitation is complete without the use of infusion. It provides the introduction of medication and nutrition to children. Modern infusion therapy in many cases requires the introduction of the drug for a long time, microdose that is technically impossible without infusion syringe pumps dosing (infusion pumps) for fluid therapy. This is the most promising device to accurately calculate the necessary dose and rate of administration of the drug, and also protect from falling into the vein of the air after the procedure. The infusion pump plays an important role in clinical practice in the treatment of preterm infants – it allows you to enter the drugs in the right dosage while avoiding its excess. Syringe pumps (infusion pumps) – it is something without which it is impossible to leave the child.

Unfortunately, the level of government financing of our hospitals leaves much to be desired. The doctors are just not equipped to help everyone. Our task is to fix it. The aim of the project is to purchase a pulse oximeter in the neonatal intensive care unit in Kherson city children's clinical hospital. A. S. Luchansky and the infusion pump in the intensive care unit of the Odessa children's hospital. AK. B. Y. Reznik, to modern equipment, is enough for all children, and all children received appropriate care and assistance.

You can support this project by sending an SMS to 88001, which exists to help healthcare institutions, namely: the acquisition, maintenance, and repair of medical equipment. After sending an SMS to 88001, 20 UAH from your account will be credited to this project. Details here.