“This was my third attempt at pregnancy. My earlier one resulted in premature neonatal deaths and I didn’t want to lose my third precious baby. Paras and its team of doctors stood by me and made my dream of becoming a mother a reality. I can’t thank them enough,” shares Mrs Rajni cuddling her new born baby girl Janya.
Post earlier neonatal death, Rajni had conceived again and delivered a baby girl through a caesarian delivery. The baby girl was again born premature and was struggling to breathe. Diagnosis and tests revealed that the new born infant was suffering from Hyaline Membrane Disease – also known as Infant Respiratory Distress Syndrome. This makes the infants dependent on more oxygen for breathing and they are dependent on machines for the same.
According to Dr Mayank Goel, Consultant Pediatrics & Neonatology, Paras Hospitals, Gurgaon shares, “Hyaline Membrane Disease(HMD) is usually found in premature babies, infact the more premature the baby, the higher is the risk of HMD. Moreover infants detected with HMD worsen over 48-72 hrs and then begin to improve. This window is the most difficult and requires specialized neonatal critical care support and monitoring. With specialized expertise 90% of the babies can survive, however if the hospitals and nurseries are not equipped with level III NICU care then the survival rates can be compromised. Paras Gurgaon is one of the few centres in Delhi NCR to have not just level III NICU care but is also the first hospital in North India to have the concept of Developmental Supportive Care – A unique set of practices developed in association with National Neonatology Forum India. This technique has been developed in association with the Department of Pediatrics & Neonatology at Paras. Today we train and propagate its teachings all over the country.”
“We not just assisted the child in breathing but also provided specialized developmental care to the newborn. The same included attention to the level of noise, light , number of times the nurse is touching and waking up the child, closely monitoring the breathing patterns and response to medication,” adds Dr Mayank.
Hyaline Membrane Disease or Infant Respiratory Distress Syndrome is a breathing disorder of premature newborns in which the air sacs (alveoli) in a newborn’s lungs do not remain open because the production of a substance that coats the alveoli (surfactant) is absent or insufficient. It can be treated following a combination or selection of clinical protocols – Placing an endotracheal (ET) tube into the baby’s windpipe to assist the breathing, providing the baby with a mechanical breathing machine to do the work of breathing for the baby, supplement the supply of oxygen by giving more amounts to the baby, using a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) – a mechanical breathing machine that pushes a continuous flow of air or oxygen to the airways to help keep tiny air passages in the lungs open, provide medications to help sedate and ease pain in babies during treatment and lastly provide Surfactant replacement with artificial surfactant .
According to Dr Mayank the most important is the artificial surfactant replacement therapy. This is done in select critical care units across the country and is most effective if started in the first six hours of birth. Surfactant replacement has been shown to reduce the severity of RDS. Surfactant is given as prophylactic (preventive) treatment for some babies at very high risk for RDS. For others it is used as a “rescue” method.
Rajni’s baby was admitted in the NICU for more than a month, post which she came out as a winner and made Paras Team , her mother and her family winners too. When you ask Rajni how she feels, she smiles and says, “Her name shall always represent the fight that she had to win to make a mother – Janya – she indeed means the life to me.”
