Nigeria has the world’s third highest number of preterm births

Data by the World Health Organization showed that 773600 preterm births occur annually in Nigeria, making Nigeria third in the global ranking of country with preterm births.

Preterm births are babies born too early and alive, usually before 37 weeks of completed gestation. The sub-categories of preterm birth based on gestational age are: extremely preterm (less than 28 weeks); very preterm (28 to 32 weeks); moderate to late preterm (32 to 37 weeks).

Preterm babies may experience a long-term health complications that can affects the brain, lungs, vision as well as lifetime disabilities than babies born at full term.

Preterm birth occurs for a variety of reasons. Most preterm births happen spontaneously, but some are due to early induction of labour or caesarean birth, whether for medical or non-medical reasons.

The common causes of preterm birth include placenta abruption, hormonal changes, multiple pregnancies, infections and chronic conditions and genetic influence.

Three-quarters of deaths associated with preterm complications are preventable with current, cost-effective interventions, such as essential care during child birth and postnatal period, provision of antenatal steroid injections, kangaroo mother care and antibiotics to treat newborn infections.

75 per cent of health complications associated with preterm birth can be prevented with adequate equipment, skilled health workers and available intensive care units in healthcare facilities.

Taking a close look at the theme of this year’s World Prematurity day which is “Working together, partnering with families in the care of small and sick new-borns”, it is a call for greater synergy, collaboration mechanism, continuous and sustainable intervention across board to address the daunting challenges associated with preterm birth.

Guidelines to improve preterm birth outcomes

WHO has come up with new developed guide lines coupled with recommendations developed for improving outcomes of preterm births.

This set of key interventions can improve the chances of survival and health outcomes for preterm infants. The guidelines include interventions provided to the mother – for example steroid injections
before birth, antibiotics when her water breaks before the onset of labour, and magnesium sulfate to prevent future neurological impairment of the child – as well as interventions for the newborn baby – for example thermal care, feeding support, kangaroo mother care, safe oxygen use, and other treatments to help babies breathe more easily.

WHO recommendations on interventions to improve preterm birth outcomes

WHO is currently coordinating two clinical trials, called the WHO ACTION Trials (Antenatal Corticosteroids for Improving Outcomes in preterm Newborns for women at risk of preterm birth by:

Immediate kangaroo mother care (KMC) multi-country trial (compared with the current recommendations of initiating KMC when baby is stable) in Ghana, India, Malawi, Nigeria and the United Republic of
Tanzania.

The trials will assess how steroid injections can be used safely and effectively for women and preterm newborns in low- and middle-income countries.

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