New guidelines launched for caring for babies in womb
They are based on research published last year by Perinatal Ireland that challenged international practice for predicting risk or complication for small babies in the womb. Pregnant women whose babies in the womb are very low weight have to be monitored because of the risk to the child.
The new guidelines provide clear instructions on how to distinguish those “at risk” and encourage a consistent approach for all health practitioners with regards to what to do when presented with a small baby in the womb.
Ultra-sound equipment supplied by the Health Research Board was used in a study involving over 1,100 pregnant women at seven maternity hospitals.
The aim was to establish exactly when health professionals needed to intervene to prevent serious health complications for small babies. Standard international practice has been to consider those babies in the bottom 10% by weight to be at the highest risk of complication. However, the study found that the babies at highest risk of adverse outcomes are in the group of babies that fall into the bottom 3%.
Lead researcher Dr Julia Unterscheider at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland said they found that most babies whose weight fell into the bottom 10% from a weight perspective went on to be a healthy baby that was simply small for its gestational age.
“We discovered that the highest risk for adverse outcomes are in the group of babies that fall into the bottom 3% by weight and who have an abnormal reading on a particular ultrasound test. It is this group that need the special monitoring or intervention,” she said.
Dr Unterscheider said they developed the new guidelines to help standardise and improve antenatal care of pregnancies affected by foetal growth restriction based on the best evidence available.
HSE national director for obstetrics and gynaecology, Prof Michael Turner, said it was estimated that worldwide only one third of growth-restricted babies were properly identified.
“These guidelines will enable clinicians to really focus on antenatal care appropriately and the research will hopefully have a global impact on improving maternal and neonatal care,” said Prof Turner.
