HanoiDue to intrauterine growth retardation, the baby girl born at just 27 weeks gestation, weighing 400 grams, is the lightest premature baby in Vietnam, has been successfully fed.
On the morning of September 9, after more than three months of treatment and care at the Neonatal Care and Treatment Center, National Maternity Hospital, the baby was stable, weighed 9.1 kg, and was about to be discharged.
“This is the first premature baby in Vietnam to be saved, which is a feat in the neonatal treatment industry, especially preterm babies,” said Associate Professor Tran Danh Cuong, Director of the National Maternity Hospital.
Three months ago, a pregnant woɱaп born in 1997 in Yen Thanh, Nghe An, was transferred from the provincial hospital to the National Maternity Hospital for preeclampsia. Examining pregnancy failure, doctors prescribe early termination of pregnancy, determined to save the mother.
On June 1, she had a caesarean section. The baby, who was born weighing 6 grams, still showed signs of life, and was immediately resuscitated by doctors in the hope that “there was still water left to slap”.
“At that ᴛι̇ɱe, the baby was only as small as a 50 ml cylinder, stuck in the palm of the medical staff’s hand,” Dr. Le Minh Trac, Director of the Neonatal Care and Treatment Center, recalled.
After surgery, the mother is stable, unable to see her baby because the baby is in intensive care in an incubator. Both the doctor and the family psychologically determined that the baby is unlikely to survive. She was discharged home a few days later. All the care and treatment of the baby depends entirely on the doctors at the Center.
Dr. Trac said that after birth, the baby was severely malnourished, atrophied, and had to be ventilated immediately. All organs such as liver, kidneys, brain, lungs, circulation … extremely immature. With a baby weighing 400 grams, the leg is less than the size of an adult’s little finger, it is extremely difficult to feed the veins, take venes.
At birth, the baby is fully nourished venously. By the 15th day, the first meal is oral, the baby eats only 1.5-2 ml / meal. After 23 days, the baby eats 5 ml of milk / meal, the frequency of eating 16 meals a day, the doctors drip milk drop by drop for the baby.
“After 3 months and 9 days, the baby now weighs 1,800 grams, breathes air on his own, eats milk 200 ml / day. This is a miraculous growth of children, with a growth of 15% of weight a week,” Dr. Trac informed.
As a caregiver for the baby from the beginning, Dr. Nguyen Thu Hoa, deputy director of the Neonatal Care and Treatment Center, said that in the first 20 days, the baby’s belly was tight, darkened, and could barely eat anything. Doctors inserted a small inhaler into the baby’s anus to pump saline, sucking out meconium because he didn’t have the strength to defecate.
“The mother is in the epidemic area so she cannot go to Hanoi with her child, used to ask doctors to take care of the baby if something bad happens. Unexpectedly, from the efforts of the doctors and the resilience of the baby, life continues today,” Dr. Hoa said.
Dr. Hoa said that the baby overcomes, growing day by day thanks to the drops of breast milk that medical staff ask for from mothers, and or from the boxes of formula that doctors collect money to buy for the baby. In addition to measures to treat premature babies according to the regimen, doctors use massage therapy right in the glass incubator.
The mother this morning was cradled in her lap, giving him warmth, saying it was “like a dream”. “She knows how to smile, suck, cry for food, some days she can eat more than 300 ml of milk,” the young mother shared.
Cuong said that preeclampsia is the most terrible disease in emergency pregnancy ɱaпagement. Therefore, during diagnosis, if there are life-threatening factors, the pregnant woɱaп will be forced to suspend the pregnancy. However, he advised mothers who are unfortunate enough to be at risk of premature birth, babies at 27-28 weeks gestation, weighing less than 1,000 grams, do not give up, do not rush to give up, be determined and take care of the hospital to find a chance to live for the baby.
“10 years ago, a premature baby weighing 500 grams was saved, now a new miracle has happened, confirming the development of medicine, especially in the neonatal industry,” Cuong said.