Having a baby born before term is not an easy matter to cope with, neither for the child nor for the parents. Therefore, 17 associations of parents of premature babies from several European countries have developed Decalogue on the rights of premature babies to raise awareness about the special needs of these small and special patients, who represent 10% of newborns.
As the president of the PREMATURA Association points out when a premature baby is born, the parents “do not feel the baby as their own but as part of the hospital”. And that is certainly not desirable.
They advise to touch it, accompany it and be in greater possible skin-to-skin contact with the child to encourage bonding with parents and benefit and accelerate their recovery.
Fortunately, there are more and more hospitals associated with the Hera Project, a program aimed at humanizing the recovery of premature babies. However, there are still many things that should change both in hospital admissions and in the prevention of premature births and the subsequent care of children born before term.
Let's see what the parent associations claim through the Decalogue of the Rights of Premature Baby
- Prioritize the needs of premature and full-term infants with diseases and provide more information to the public about them.
- Develop and implement measures to prevent premature births.
- Develop and implement medical guidelines for resuscitation of premature infants in hospitals.
- Develop and implement quality guidelines and levels controlled by an independent body for the treatment and assistance in hospitals of premature and term-born infants with diseases.
- Improve subsequent specialized care to improve the development of premature and full-term infants with diseases.
- Develop and implement structured programs and systems to document medical examinations and subsequent care of premature and term-born infants with diseases.
- Improve the psychological and social assistance provided by specialized health professionals to parents of premature infants and term babies born with illnesses, both in the hospital and after discharge.
- To allocate research funds to carry out studies in order to improve the treatment, assistance and neonatal outcomes of premature and term-born infants with diseases.
- Prolong maternity leave and maternity assistance (financial support) for parents of premature and full-term infants with illness.
- Provide appropriate school and educational support to improve the development of premature and full-term infants with diseases.
