Prematurity bulk of baby deaths in Samoa

Transcript

A doctor at Samoa's baby unit says women need to seek medical care early in their pregnancies to avoid the risks of premature delivery.

The World Health Organisation says preterm birth is the world's largest killer of newborn babies, causing more than one million deaths each year, but  75 per cent could be saved without expensive, high technology care.

A Pediatric Registrar, Dr Litra Esera, told Jenny Meyer in Samoa babies born up to ten weeks early are able to be supported but up to half do not survive due to overwhelming infection.

LITRA ESERA: For Samoa we had a pediatric symposium that we conducted back in 2011 and that was when we did an audit on causes of admissions into our nursery unit which is where we host the premature babies. So prematurity made up the bulk our deaths in our nursery unit. But the causes that I know, in Samoa we have quite a lot of unbooked mothers, so infection is hard to rule out so that must be the leading cause of prematurity in our setting. Probably infection and undiagnosed infection, things like urinary tract infections in mums. As well as multiple pregnancies is the other one, twin pregnancies, we have quite a lot of premature twin deliveries and we do lose some of them.

JENNY MEYER: How is the standard of care for premature babies in the Pacific Islands? I guess they're very expensive to care for given that some of them need to stay in hospital weeks or even months?

LE: Yes, So at the moment we are able to support babies that are 30 weeks and above, if they don't have any overwhelming sepsis. But we do try and care for them in our nursery unit and I'd say half of them do make it, the other half don't really, because the infection is the main reason, overwhelming infection.

JM: What can be done to try and help these very vulnerable babies do you think? What can women do to try and keep a pregnancy you know running the full term of 40 weeks rather than going into premature labour?

LE: So at the moment because we've got quite a lot of women who sort of book late, or don't book at all, they just turn up to give birth sort of thing and come in in labour with a premature pregnancy. So booking would be one of the first things. Just encourage them to do their booking bloods, do a urine test and so they can be supplemented if needed. That would be one of the things that we are trying to push for at the moment back in the periphery. Because we have a lot of traditional healers and it's still quite prevalent in our population to sort of go to the traditional healer, rather than coming to hospital in the first instance when one becomes pregnant.