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Educare

Educare

ABRIL 2010 N° 4 Volumen 8

Targeted nursing care for premature newborns

Section: TEACHING TO LEARN

Authors

1Laura Castro Varela, 2Marco Antonio Zapata Sampedro

Position

1Diplomada en Enfermería. Hospitales Universitarios Virgen del Rocío, Sevilla.2Diplomado en Enfermería. Centro de Salud Polígono Norte. Distrito sanitario AP, Sevilla.

Abstract

Premature infants are those who are born before term. A birth is considered preterm when it occurs before 37 weeks of pregnancy, term infants are born between 38 and 42 weeks after the last menstrual period of the mother.
There are many causes of preterm delivery. Sometimes it's caused by the lifestyle that the mother leads during pregnancy (smoking, drinking alcohol, eating poorly, stress). However, quite often the cause is not controlled by the mother, such as a chronic disease or an infection.
Premature infants have many special needs for which they must receive different care than those born at term. That is the reason because they often spend the first stage of their lives after delivery in a neonatal unit.
The neonatal unit is designed to provide premature infants an atmosphere that limits stress and meets their basic needs of warmth, nutrition and protection to assure proper growth and development.
Thanks to the many recent advances, over 90% of premature infants weighing 800 grams or more survive. Those who weigh more than 500 grams have between 40% and 50% chance of survival, although the chances of complications are greater.

Keywords:

neonatology; nursing care; premature infant; preterm birth; weeks of pregnancyweight

Versión en Español

Título:

Cuidados enfermeros dirigidos a los recién nacidos prematuros