Of course, the best place for the pregnant baby is the mother's womb. But unfortunately, for various reasons of which we have spoken several times in the blog, many of them related to the lifestyle we lead, in some cases premature delivery occurs.
The baby with less than 37 weeks of gestation is considered a premature baby who needs special care to finish maturing outside the uterus.
Neonatology intensive care units have all the technology available to the newborn, but are they the best place for a premature baby? Are the lights, cold hospital environment and isolation suitable for recovery? Personally, I think not. And many studies related to the Kangaroo Method guarantee that skin-to-skin contact is favorable (I would say fundamental) for the development of the baby.
Based on this concept, some hospitals in the United States such as Baptist Children's Hospital in Miami and Children's Hospital St. Paul have opened special rooms called "womb rooms" (womb rooms or belly rooms) that they try to imitate the conditions that the baby had inside the womb and where the premature one can remain at all times with his parents.
They are private rooms with the necessary technology so that the baby is continuously controlled but with some “extra services”.
On the one hand, the kangaroo method can be practiced in which the mother holds the baby against her breast so she can breastfeed, hear her heartbeat and be in contact with her skin, benefits that accelerate her recovery and shorten the baby's stay at the hospital.
In addition, staying in the rooms allows that with the help of the parents the baby can be changed position, since premature babies are not able to do it themselves, and can be detrimental to their subsequent motor development.
The room lights have the right intensity to avoid causing injuries to the baby's eyes and not to alter his circadian rhythm. They also have acoustic isolation so that they do not stress and avoid injuries to their fragile ears.
In some cases, the baby has to remain for months under special care, during which the ideal is that he can be with his parents and not isolated in an incubator with strict visiting hours, or at most be visited through a camera Web.
The incubators of the future seem to improve the conditions of the babies, but no technology, however advanced, can be compared to the human warmth that the mother gives her baby.
I understand that in most hospitals there are problems of space, that it is a very expensive system and that it needs an adequate infrastructure, but if I had a premature child this is the care I would like him to receive.
