Description

Newborn Intensive Care

Dora Hospital has a newborn intensive care service
equipped with a strong technical infrastructure. It has the infrastructure
and equipment to allow newborns to do all kinds of routine and emergency
interventions. Experienced newborn nurses and other assistant personnel
also serve in the service under the coordination of a neonatal specialist.

The newborn period is the first 28 days of
life. This period is especially important for the harmony of the
respiratory and circulatory system. In our country, an average of 1.5
million births occur annually and 10% of these births are
“premature”, ie premature babies.

The newborn intensive care unit is the service where the
care and treatment of premature babies born before the 34th gestational week
and sick babies born older than this week are carried out. Nowadays, with
the rapidly developing assisted reproductive techniques, an increase in
multiple pregnancies, especially in preterm births, and an increase in the need
for neonatal intensive care services. 22-23. The neonatal unit with
technological medical infrastructure ensures that premature babies with a birth
weight of 500 g or less can be kept alive during pregnancy weeks.

What are the most important problems with premature babies?

The intensive care bed required for hospitalization of
sick newborns is insufficient and not available in some birth centers. For
this reason, sick newborns and premature babies are referred to institutions
with intensive care units immediately after birth. The prolongation of
such a referral time and the distance may adversely affect the baby.

The most important problem encountered in premature
babies is lung problems. Lungs complete their development in the 34th
week, and babies born before this week may have respiratory distress due to
surfactant deficiency in the lungs. For treatment, the surfactant should
be replaced and the baby should be helped with ventilator devices. In
hospitals with neonatal intensive care units, the treatment of this disorder
can be started immediately after birth and there is no loss of
time. Starting the treatment early reduces the severity of the disease,
provides a faster response to the treatment and eliminates the problems that
may be encountered during the referral.

One of the most common problems encountered in premature
babies is susceptibility to intracranial hemorrhage. Elimination of the
referral process also minimizes this risk.

The fact that the baby and the mother are in the same
hospital ensures that breast milk is taken regularly, and at the same time
prevents interruption of mother-infant communication.