babies | Health News Brněnská Drbna
In the Czech Republic, nine thousand children are born prematurely every year. Due to their weight and state of health, some of the babies born have to end up in the care of health professionals in intensive care units (ICUs) and often spend several months in hospital. The same fate befell Emmička from Brno, who, after looking out at the world, weighed only nine hundred grams.
Little Emma surprised her mother Kateřina Fialová already in the thirtieth week of pregnancy, when doctors had to help the world by caesarean section. After her birth, she spent two days in the ICU, followed by a long stay at the Department of Intermediate Care at the University Hospital in Brno. “Premature birth was a big surprise for me. I didn’t start realizing that it happened until a few days later. Naturally, I was afraid and worried about how I could handle such a small baby. But then my sister came and everything she told me calmed me down. “ says 40-year-old Fialová, who is a doctor by profession.
Parents learn to take care of children
Fear and panic changed in the hope of a mother of two daughters after Kateřina Fialová found out that in a Brno hospital there is a possibility to be hospitalized together with a premature baby and to be close to him every day. “Not everywhere is the share of maternity care for previously born children. We have a special background for mothers. The child who is in the incubator happens not only physically, but especially emotionally and needs to have his parents with him, ” explains the chief physician of the Neonatological ICU in the Maternity Hospital on the Grain Market Tomas Juren.
Kateřina Fialová with Emma in the ICU.
The attitude of the nursing staff in the neonatology department has changed significantly in recent years and parents have become equal partners in the care of their premature babies. On a daily basis, they come to their small daughters and sons in the ICU, deliver sprayed breast milk and learn from the sisters how to take care of their “fragile fighters”. “We leave our parents to have contact with the little ones, such as the five-hundred-gram babies. In the past, parents had almost no access to such children, which sometimes resulted in a lack of relationship with them. ” says the nurse Kateřina Smejkalováwho has been working at the department for twenty – six years.
About 130 children weighing less than one and a half kilograms are born annually at the University Hospital Brno. Such babies are called very immature newborns and need an incubator for proper development. However, even this does not prevent contact with the closest persons. Despite the connection to the lung ventilator, parents can bury premature babies and press them to their chests. It is human contact that is key for newborns. After a short stay in the ICU, the newborns are then moved to the mother’s room, which is comfortably by her bed in the incubator.
Fear and gratitude
During the two mentally demanding months that Kateřina Fialová and her daughter Emma spent in a hospital, she experienced feelings of fear and happiness. “I was incredibly grateful that the nurses led me to take care of Emmička. They helped me anytime and were very accommodating. The main thing that was healing for me was that I could be with my daughter, “ confides in Purple. Emma is now two years old and weighs nine kilograms, which is roughly the weight of a year old child. She balances her small figure with an energetic personality.
The person who will take care of them is also given to children in Brno, which the mother gives up after giving birth. At the Department of Intermediate Care, babies can also be accommodated temporarily by foster parents, who give the children the necessary human contact and later take care of him in their homes. New rooms for mothers with premature babies are currently being opened in the Brno hospital and the new capacity will be twenty-four beds. The other seven will then belong to the ICU department.