Tiny babies: how newborns weighing 500 grams are cared for

What to give as a discharge gift to the mother and the maternity hospital staff

The birth of a new person is a real holiday that happy parents will always remember. Upon discharge, relatives and friends of the new parents are given a unique opportunity to look at the baby for the first time. Of course, this event cannot pass without congratulations and gifts. They can be presented at the very moment when mother and baby leave the walls of the maternity hospital. It is customary to give gifts to the staff, and, of course, to the woman in labor herself. Let's start with the staff, or more precisely, with the nurse who carries the child out and hands him to the young dad. Which, in turn, should also not remain in debt. You can give the nurse the following gifts:

• flowers;
• a bottle of champagne;
• a box of chocolates;
• cake.

It all depends on your financial capabilities and how much you are willing to thank the nurse, and in her person - the entire maternity hospital staff on shift. A gift for a wife should be more meaningful:

1. Precious pendant, earrings or ring in the shape of a stroller or baby’s legs.

   
   Upon discharge from the maternity hospital, a husband can give his wife a precious ring in the shape of the baby’s feet

2. Bouquet of favorite flowers.
3. A gift she had long dreamed of.
4. An outfit that she had been eyeing for a long time in the store (check with your wife for the sizes, as they may change after giving birth).

Relatives can give the new mother gifts that will make caring for the baby easier:

• a comfortable lounge chair for rocking your baby to sleep;
• a beautiful cradle bed;

  
  Relatives can give the girl a cradle-bed for her baby upon discharge

  Read also:  How to properly place a newborn in a crib
• baby feeding pillow;
• a multicooker if necessary (especially if a married couple lives alone and the woman will have to cook on her own);
• stroller

Friends of a married couple can please young parents with the following gifts:

• a cake made from diapers, which you can make yourself or order;
• beautiful clothes for a newborn;
• flowers, bouquets of balloons;
• a musical mobile for the baby, which can be used from the second month of his life.

In order for your gift to be appropriate, you need to ask in advance whether the young parents have already purchased this item. Choose really useful gifts - a woman especially needs them now in her new status.

Peculiarities of nursing a child born prematurely

At the initial stage, the process of nursing a premature baby takes place in the maternity ward . It is preferable that these births take place in a hospital that has a pediatric intensive care unit. This is where the newborn will go immediately after birth. But unfortunately, not all maternity hospitals have a pediatric intensive care unit.

Reference! The hospital has created the conditions for recovery or rehabilitation necessary for a premature baby. The length of hospital stay, the amount of medical care and procedures depend on the baby’s condition.

An “incubator” is used to maintain a stable body temperature of a premature baby. Staying in it helps the baby quickly adapt and gain weight. The duration of stay in the incubator depends on his weight at birth, as well as the general dynamics of his condition.

The period of stay of babies with slight prematurity in the “incubator” is from a couple of hours to 4 days, for example:

• children weighing up to 1750 g. - about a week;
• with a weight of up to 1500 g. - from a week to two.

How long do they stay in the hospital with a premature baby? The mother needs to be internally prepared for a long stay in the department for premature babies: from several weeks to two to three months. Anthropometric, physiological data, and the baby’s gestational week are also

Ideas for organizing discharge from the maternity hospital

To please the young mother, the husband and relatives must think through everything down to the smallest detail. The organization of discharge from the maternity hospital is important. First, the room where the baby will arrive with his parents for the first time is decorated. Usually it is designed in color depending on the gender of the child. Blue, light blue, green tones are suitable for boys, and pink, orange, lilac, purple, etc. for girls. You can decorate the room in neutral colors. For example, in yellow or white. You can fill the room with balloons, or order a stroller or baby from them. The baby's crib, chest of drawers and other furniture are decorated with large ribbons.

For discharge, you can fill the room with balloons, or order a stroller or baby from them

A table with treats does not need to be placed in the baby’s room. It is better to organize it in the kitchen by decorating the chairs with ribbons. If discharge from the maternity hospital takes place in the summer, then you can rent a tent - a small, beautifully decorated terrace, organizing a celebration in the fresh air. The organizers will also deliver refreshments here. This is a good option, because when the young mother gets tired and wants to rest, she will be able to leave the holiday, and no one will bother her at home. And the guests will be able to continue the celebration - they will not have to go home.

If discharge from the maternity hospital takes place in the summer, then you can rent a tent - a small beautifully decorated terrace, organizing a holiday in the fresh air

The car in which the baby will travel from the maternity hospital can be decorated with special stickers in the shape of strollers and babies. The numbers also have special stickers with the names of newborns. Add balloons to them, and the transport will look festive. It’s better not to have a too noisy celebration for discharge - let it be calm and joyful. After the maternity hospital, a woman will soon want to rest - now she has no time for guests. Notify those closest to you about the upcoming event and warn that the baby is still very small and needs a calm and quiet environment.

Conditions of discharge

As a rule, the decision to discharge a child from the maternity ward or a specialized children's hospital is possible if the baby has stable adaptation to the environment:

1. the baby feeds independently from the mother's breast;
2. has good weight gain, upon discharge the weight should be at least 2.5 kg;
3. able to maintain a constant body temperature;
4. There are no problems with breathing or heartbeat.

Upon discharge from the maternity ward, the woman is given the following documents:

• Exchange card consists of two sheets. The first contains all the information about mommy (he is sent to the antenatal clinic). The second contains information about the baby. It indicates his gender, height, weight at birth and at discharge, Apgar score, information about the nature of feeding, test results (given to the children's clinic).
• Two birth certificate coupons sent to the children's clinic. The first is necessary to pay health care institutions for services for the first six months of dispensary observation of the baby, and the other for the next six months.
• Medical certificate of birth , which indicates the date and time of birth of the baby, his gender, full name of the doctor who delivered the child. The document must contain the signature of the doctor and the seal of the maternity hospital. With the help of this certificate, parents will be able to obtain a birth certificate from the civil registry office.

Kangaroo moms

“This is our Vanechka,” doctors from the intensive care unit of the Moscow Regional Perinatal Center show the chicken. — He’s still gaining weight poorly. 500 grams." Vanechka was born at 23 weeks. He has socks knitted by his mother on his feet - like a doll's. Nearby lies a hat made of the same yarn.

Next door to Vanya is Amir. The doctors are happy for him. In a month he gained more than a hundred grams and now weighs 775. Boxes with tiny human chickens are opened only for a few minutes. The rest of the time they are covered with special capes. The principle of care is contained in three “t”s: quiet, warm and dark - like a mother’s in the womb. But it’s impossible without a mother, and mothers come to their chicks to pick them up, cuddle them (“skin to skin” - in medical slang) and become a kangaroo with the baby kangaroo for a while, because this is the method of care used by doctors called the kangaroo method.

Since January last year, Russia has switched to registering newborns starting from 22 weeks of gestation and a fetal weight of 500 grams. What was once considered a miscarriage is now a premature birth.

Olga Serova, chief physician of the Moscow Regional Perinatal Center , explains that such changes became possible thanks to the development of medicine in general and the capabilities of modern medical technology in particular.

— But if new standards were introduced in the country a year ago, then we have been caring for children with extremely low weight for 4 years.

Survival is just the beginning

When the chicks grow up, they are transferred to another department - neonatal pathology. And the second stage in the system of caring for premature babies begins. Here it depends on the condition: if the baby is not yet strong enough, the mother comes here just to be with him. The doctors do the rest. If his condition allows him to transfer care responsibilities from doctors to his mother, then they already lie together.

In the center, 70% of children with extremely low body weight survive, that is, those born mainly at the 22-27th week of pregnancy. This figure corresponds to global data.

“Of course, such children need further painstaking care. But, unfortunately, we don’t have a rehabilitation department yet,” says Olga Serova. — Children discharged from the neonatal pathology department must then also undergo rehabilitation therapy, because their vision suffers, their hearing suffers, and many have neurological disorders... To minimize the risks of disability, of course, further rehabilitation and dispensary observation of these children are very important. That is, survival is not everything. This is just the beginning of the journey.

Article on the topic

Premature babies can't breathe or eat, but they can survive

In general, the building in which the center is located was an ordinary municipal maternity hospital until 2004. After the latest major renovation, which has just been completed, the center has not only acquired beautiful modern interiors, but also expanded its capabilities.

Thus, in the intensive care unit the number of beds increased from 12 to 30, in the neonatal pathology department - from 30 to 40. Other departments were also expanded: gynecological, obstetric and physiological.

But on a regional scale, this is, of course, not enough. Moreover, since last year, along with the transition to the category of premature births of a significant proportion of former miscarriages, the number of premature baby chicks, for whose lives it is necessary to fight, has also increased.

Commented by Andrey Vorobiev, acting. O. Governor of the Moscow region:

— We don’t have enough perinatal centers. At least four are needed, but there is only one - in Balashikha, with 180 seats. The construction of such a facility costs the budget 3 billion rubles! There is expensive modern equipment that saves the lives of the youngest children. Construction is expensive, but we will build them. New centers will open in Kolomna, Shchelkovo and Naro-Fominsk. Plus another maternity hospital - in Sergiev Posad.