Campaign needed to cut risk of babies born prematurely

A consultant neonatologist with 30 years experience has called for a public health campaign designed to reduce the risk of babies being born prematurely.

Professor Anthony Ryan, consultant neonatologist at Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH), said the cost of prematurity can be “huge for parents if the baby survives or if the baby dies”, as well as “huge for society” and that “we should be looking at ways of reducing it”.

“It is not something accidental, I think it is something that can be tackled if we look at the risks,” Prof Ryan said. These included late maternal age, infection, obesity, multiple birth, previous miscarriage/preterm delivery and smoking during pregnancy, as outlined in an information leaflet, launched today by the Irish Neonatal Health Alliance (INHA) at their medical symposium in Dublin, which Prof Ryan will speak at.