The Care and Management of Premature Infants

During the last few years the care and management of premature infants has acquired additional importance, and has been more extensively studied in all civilized countries. This has been largely due to the widespread adoption of well-organized antenatal treatment, and considerably more inductions of labour are now performed in the interests of the mother or the child. Apart from the usual desire to rear a premature infant, however unpromising at birth, various family or domestic reasons may make its survival a matter of supreme importance. The death of the premature infant of an elderly primipara where labour has been induced, shall we say, on account of severe toxaemia, may be in the nature of stark tragedy to its parents. Furthermore, in every case the mother has had perhaps thirty-four weeks of pregnancy to endure, with all its trials and discomforts, and has every reason to expect a live baby as her reward.