The Department of Child Health Nursing, Manipal College of Nursing (MCON) with Department of Paediatrics, Kasturba Medical College (KMC), MAHE Manipal, observed World Prematurity Day with activities to be held from November 11 to 18.
A release stated that the aim was to create awareness among nurses and mothers of premature babies. As every year, more than one in ten babies are born before time, World Prematurity Day is observed on November 17. Sessions were conducted by Leslie Lewis, Professor, Department of Pediatrics, KMC, Yashodha and Binu Margaret, Assistant Professors, Department of Child Health Nursing, MCON.
Dr. Lewis spoke on the theme, ‘Born Too Soon: Providing the right care, at the right time, in the right place’. He emphasized upon high quality care for intact survival of extremely premature infants and how blend of technology with humanized care promotes optimum growth and development of the premature babies.
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A NeoRaksha App was created with financial support from Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology. It is developed as an intervention to empower parents to support the growth and development of premature infants and to connect mothers with community health workers (ASHA) and health care professionals at the hospital. An interactive session was held between mothers of premature babies who were discharged and new mothers at hospital and the health care professionals on November 18. “The app is very useful. It enabled me to monitor the growth and developmental milestones of the baby at home, connect to healthcare professionals to clarify any doubts and get immunization and follow-up alerts,” a mother said.
Sulatha V. Bhandary, Head of Department of Ophthalmology, stressed upon follow up and screening of Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) as it was vital for early detection and treatment.