Newborn care units in Tambaram, Tiruttani soon

The facilities are aimed at bringing down neonatal mortality rate in Tambaram, Tiruttani, Rajapalayam, Vriddachalam and Gudiyattam. With this the total number of NICUs in the state will go up to 69.

Neonatal care has become an integral point in health services due to the increasing number of births of pre-term and under-weight babies due to lifestyle factors and advanced maternal age. Tamil Nadu has been focusing on the field for close to a decade now strengthening the NICU network not just in medical college hospitals, but also in district headquarters hospitals and sub district hospitals. 

The NICUs are equipped with ventilator, apart from 10 staff nurses and 3-4 paediatricians. To bring down the infant mortality rate to single digit, five more well equipped NICUs will be added in Tambaram, Tiruttani, Rajapalayam, Vriddachalam and Gudiyattam hospitals. 

Speaking to DTNext, S Srinivasan, state coordinator, NHM, Newborn Registrar, Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children, Egmore, says that with the drop in infant mortality rate from 20 to 19 per cent, the NMR (neonatal mortality rate) is expected to decline from 14.5 to almost 13 per cent. 

“However, the present mission is to bring this down further to single digit.  We have been successful in saving the lives of babies weighing 700 gms without any congenital problems. But, we also want to save the lives of such babies born with heart defects or with lung function problems, etc.,” he said, adding that over the years there had been an increase of 10,000 admissions in these NICUs. 

Besides these, nurses in primary health care centres are being trained to provide kangaroo mother care (where the babies are kept between the mother’s breasts to provide skin to skin care), in the NICUs. 

Highlighting the need for constant attention to neonatal care, Deepa Hariharan, city-based senior consultant neonatologist, said that there was a steady rise in the number of pre-term and under-weight babies. “The care given to such newborns determines their quality of life later,” she added.