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Show A doctor proposes: ' Let's do something about our shockingly high infant mortality" THERE'S NO SUBSTITUTE for (killed hands and thorough training whin a critically ill nowborn has to bo cared for. Elizabeth Grob, R.N. brings both attributes to the Intensive Care Nursery of the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, aided by the March of Dimes. i by Arthur J. Salisbury, M.D. Director of Medical Services The National F oundation March of Dimes Americans were the first to land on the moon, but we are 16th in the United Nations' ranking of infant mortality statistics. If you are shocked by this poor record, so are we at The National Foundation-March of Dimes. Of every thousand babies born alive in this country, coun-try, almost 20 never reach their first birthday. Worse still, many are infants who live in large cities in the shadow of our best medical centers. It has been well said that the level of any civilization can be judged by the way in which the very young and the very old are cared for. By that standard, ours is seriously lacking in its concern for the welfare of its youngest members, particularly particu-larly those of minority groups and others who are not receiving receiv-ing the full benefit of scientific achievement. As a voluntary health association asso-ciation deeply concerned with the quality of life at birth, The National Foundation has launched a new perinatal program pro-gram to stimulate both laymen and medical men to do something some-thing about infant mortality, and do it now. Better Care The heart of the program is encouragement of prenatal care, development of a systematic syste-matic network of nurseries able to meet the needs of infants from normal to critically ill, and a program that will attempt at-tempt to upgrade all maternity and newborn care through training programs for hospital staffs and physicians. The mother who has regularly regu-larly attended a good prenatal care clinic has a definitely better bet-ter chance of delivering a healthy baby. She will take better care of herself, follow a better diet, and learn more about pregnancy and infant care. Instead of seeing a doctor for the first time when she is in labor, she will see one often, get his advice, and follow it. Just as important is the fact that the doctor and other health workers will be able to spot those women with special problems prob-lems or abnormalities of pregnancy. preg-nancy. They can be given special spe-cial attention, and the chances of their delivering an underweight, under-weight, premature, or critically ill baby can thereby be materially materi-ally reduced. Regional Nurseries But prenatal care is not enough. Some babies come into the world in troub., and the Foundation now seeks io maximize maxi-mize the chance of healthy survival sur-vival for these children too. To accomplish this, we are supporting the establishment of regional intensive care nurseries nur-series (ICNs) to which such babies can be swiftly and safely transported. Once in the ICN, the baby is monitored electronically electron-ically and constantly watched over by skilled nurses and residents. resi-dents. Some need more oxygen. Others who are suffering from neonatal jaundice need treatment treat-ment to prevent this temporary condition from causing brain damage. Still others have such difficulty in breathing that they require temporary assistance from a respirator especially designed de-signed for infant lungs. Infant in Trouble We do not believe that every hospital nursery should be staffed and equipped to treat critically ill babies. That makes no more sense than attempting to equip every operating room with the expensive complex equipment and highly trained staff which is in short supply needed to do open-heart surgery. sur-gery. Each hospital should evaluate evalu-ate itself, its needs, and its potential po-tential and develop services and transfer plans accordingly. This, of course, means that the staffs and attending physicians physi-cians of the smaller hospitals must be able to recognize the infant who is in trouble as early as possible and provide high quality emergency and supportive suppor-tive care until he can be transferred. trans-ferred. To this end March of Dimes funds are going for new outreach training programs, conducted at ICNs aided by the Foundation and at small community hospitals. |