There is a huge emotional, physical and financial burden on families of premature babies, a consultant neonatologist at the Rotunda Hospital has said. Prof Afif El-Khuffash said families go through an “emotional roller coaster” when their baby is in the neonatal intensive care unit following birth. so that when they actually go home they’re ready for caring for the baby.”The Rotunda Foundation hosted a party on Thursday to celebrate premature babies born at the hospital in 2016, to mark World Prematurity Day. The hospital’s 2017 annual clinical report said the survival rate of babies born premature at 28 weeks or later was 100 per cent. In babies born preterm, the chance of survival at less than 22 weeks is close to zero.

Source: The Irish Times November 15, 2018 14:03 UTC