A study of 93 premature babies, all under 1 kg at birth, who were administered with a suspension of probiotics along with breast milk showed that they had lower incidence of infections than a control group that did not receive the probiotics, said Deepa Hariharan, a neonatalogist at Surya Hospital and a member of the directorial board of the Indian Foundation of Premature Babies. “Our study, conducted over a 16-month period, was presented at the 49th annual meeting of the European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition,” said Dr. Hariharan, speaking to the media on Thursday evening at the launch of a book on ‘Best Neonatal Practices of India’, on the occasion of World Prematurity Day.
Dr. Hariharan said there were 35 lakh premature births in India every year, and three lakh deaths. “An increasing number of mothers are delivering prematurely — before 37 weeks — for a number of reasons including gestational diabetes and hypertension, infections and huge amounts of stress,” she said. Stress as a cause has not been addressed adequately, she said, emphasising the need for mothers to take time for themselves in order to relax. Prematurity is one of the leading causes of death in infants under a year worldwide and in India, she said, adding 25 to 50 per cent of deaths among premature babies were due to infections.
“Preventing infections is crucial and we stress this with importance given to hand hygiene, an antibiotic policy that does not allow for overuse, sterile set-ups for procedures and encouraging breastfeeding,” she said. Premature delivery, she said, can have take a huge emotional, physical and financial toll on the mother and family. The book was released by film-maker Aishwarya Rajinikanth Dhanush.
