Premature infants in Brazil are experiencing the effects of coronavirus infection – even if they are childless

His refusal has left medical professionals helpless, declining to care for patients without the need to prevent or receive treatment. Brazil has a population of over 16.7 million, with a death toll of about 2,000 a day. While this has dropped to 4,000 daily rises in the second wave of April, it is one of the highest in the world.

While the quality and availability of medical care can vary across the world as large as Brazil, even the best hospitals in the country have been destroyed, and only good places like São Paulo have seen any increase.

And six months after the oxygen crisis in the Amazonas, women and babies are still feeling the effects.

Care problems

Each year, about 340,000 babies in Brazil are born prematurely – 37 weeks prematurely. This is twice as common in Europe and, according to World Health Organization (WHO), the 10th largest birthday in the world. Many of the methods needed to care for these babies, including early breastfeeding and skin-to-skin contact with their parents, continue to stand out in hospitals across the country despite the evidence that this puts their growth, development, and survival at a higher risk than covid -19.

Although the number of preterm infants in Brazil for 2020 has not been released, experts such as Denise Suguitani – founder and director of nonprofit Prematuridade, the only NGO in the country to help preterm infants and their families – expect an increase in years to come.

Antenatal care may prevent many women from giving birth prematurely, but covid-19 has made it possible for expectant parents to skip to see a doctor. According to research conducted by Brazilian Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics Associations in July and August last year, 81% of midwives / medical respondents surveyed said their patients were concerned about taking covid-19 during pregnancy.

Suguitani says: “It’s time to give birth before birth when the risks of premature birth are known.” “Therefore, if a pregnant woman misses an exam or examination, there is a risk that her pregnancy will not be detected.”

Concentration of covid-19 during pregnancy also helps the baby to be born faster. According to Rossiclei Pinheiro, a pediatrician and neonatologist at Federal University of Amazonas, long-term work begins when inflammation caused by coronavirus — or any other type of disease — appears in the amniotic membrane, causing it to erupt more quickly.

In some cases, babies whose mothers have covid-19 need to be born as soon as possible.

“Once a mother has covid and stops breathing, the baby can develop asphyxia in the uterus,” says Pinheiro.

The dangers of limiting play

In the midst of the epidemic, hospitals have fewer visitors to NICU, and some staff members also forbid parents from touching their children. Pinheiro and other experts say this is the wrong approach.

The most important method of skin-to-skin contact involves infants resting on the chest above the parent. It is called kangaroo care, and has been shown to reduce infant mortality by 40%, hypothermia by more than 70%, and serious illness by 65%. Mu study of March, WHO and other researchers have found that the care of kangaroo babies gives birth to covid-infected babies a better chance of surviving, and its benefits outweigh the lower risk of dying from the virus.

Carla Luana da Silva, a 27-year-old woman from the state of São Paulo, is not only banned from looking after a kangaroo with her very old baby – she has been banned from contacting her. Da Silva says it was one of the most difficult parts of a 81-day baby stay at NICU.