In the U.S. alone, more than 3.5 million babies are born each year. Alongside them, an endlessly fascinating organ that’s essential to a healthy pregnancy: the placenta.The placenta forms early in pregnancy, providing a vital connection between baby and mom. Then, it’s delivered shortly after the baby during childbirth, and its job is complete.
Tag: Neonatal
3 Keys to Assessing Cardiac Function in Neonatal Shock
Neonatal shock is an acute and potentially life-threatening condition for babies. To treat it, physicians must determine whether systolic or diastolic dysfunction—or both—is causing a lack of oxygen to the baby’s organs.But that’s not always a simple task.
How dads can use ‘kangaroo care’ to bond with their infants
For the first time, University of South Australia researchers have documented the experiences of a group of fathers holding their premature and critically ill term babies against their bare chest in a pouch-like position known as ‘kangaroo care’ or KC.
Genetic Testing for Neonatal Epilepsy Allows Babies to Go Home Sooner
Genetic testing results in lower length of stay in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for infants with epilepsy, according to a study published in the journal Pediatric Neurology. The reduction in hospital stay time in babies with epilepsy who spent time in the NICU was not explained by changes in the severity of illness, birth weight or population changes in the NICU over time. These findings confirm the importance of early genetic testing for epilepsy, which allows more precise treatment and better seizure control during a critical time in brain development.
Baby detector software embedded in digital camera rivals ECG
Facial recognition is now common in adults, but University of South Australia researchers have developed software that can reliably detect a premature baby’s face in an incubator and remotely monitor its heart and breathing rates, rivalling ECG machines and even outperforming them. This is the first step in using non-contact monitoring in neonatal wards, avoiding skin tearing and potential infections from adhesive pads.x
Task force gives guidance on classifying neonatal seizures – An ILAE podcast
ILAE has published guidelines on classifying seizures and epilepsies, but those classifications don’t account for seizures in newborn babies. Two ILAE task forces spent several years on a position paper that modifies the seizure and epilepsy classifications for neonatal seizures.
Specialized Care Team Launched in Central Texas to Help High-Risk Expectant Mothers
To offer transport to a high level of specialty care for expectant mothers and their babies, Baylor Scott & White Health has launched the system’s first Central Texas maternal transport team.
Baylor Scott & White maternal nurses staff the team, which also includes pilots, paramedics and EMTs who will facilitate transfers of high-risk obstetrics patients via air and ground transfers from hospitals throughout the region. The maternal transport team began service May 17, transporting patients to and from facilities inside and outside of the Baylor Scott & White Health system.
Could Reducing Painful Procedures Help Premature Infants’ Brains?
Premature infants born earlier than 28 weeks gestation who experience fewer needle pokes while receiving life-saving care in the neonatal intensive care unit may have better growth of a part of the brain called the thalamus. The new study is published in the October 21, 2020, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
International research team develops articifial lung to support pre-term babies in distress
An international team led by current and former McMaster University researchers has developed an artificial lung to support pre-term and other newborn babies in respiratory distress.
COVID-19 Can Be Transmitted in the Womb, Reports Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal
A baby girl in Texas – born prematurely to a mother with COVID-19 – is the strongest evidence to date that intrauterine (in the womb) transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can occur, reports The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, the official journal of The European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.
Defining Paths to Possible Mother to Child Coronavirus Transmission
UC Davis Health physicians defined the conditions of coronavirus transmission from mother to baby during pregnancy and delivery.