THE CARE OF FETAL BABIES - SURVIVAL OF A 390-G INFANT

Infants with birth weight 750 g or less usually have a poor survival rate, and those who live have poor neurologic and intellectual outcome. With significant advances in perinatal care and meticulous neonatal support, the survival of these babies has improved in recent years and the long-term outcome can be as good as that of larger low-birth-weight infants. It is likely that the reported increase in survival of ELBW infants reflects a changing obstetrical approach to the extremely premature fetus along with an increased attitude among pediatricians and neonatologists to treating such babies. This posture is motivated and supported by a number of factors, including regional systems of perinatal care that encourage early maternal transport to tertiary centers, an increasing ability of neonatal intensive care technology to achieve survival, and more optimistic long-term neurodevelopmental outcome reports. Our experience is encouraging in this regard. This presentation reports the survival of an ELBW infant delivered in Switzerland before the completion of the 26th week of gestation and weighing 390 g at birth.