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The incidence and severity of heatwaves are increasing globally with concomitant health complications. Pregnancy is a critical time in the life course at risk of adverse health outcomes due to heat exposure. Dynamic physiological adaptations, which include altered thermoregulatory pathways, occur in pregnancy.
Contemporary models of NICU care emphasize the critical role of parents in supporting their infant's development. Fathers play an important, but underutilized, role throughout their infant's NICU journey. This narrative review describes the main direct and indirect mechanisms through which fathers support the development of their NICU infant, and the barriers and facilitators to this support as described in current research.
Normal in utero lung development and growth rely upon the expansion of airspaces and the controlled efflux of lung liquid into the amniotic space. Infants with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) also have lung hypoplasia due to occupation of the chest cavity by the stomach and bowel and, in the most severe cases, the liver. Balloon tracheal occlusion reduces the severity of lung hypoplasia in fetuses with CDH but increases the risk of premature birth.
There is limited evidence regarding the optimal time to commence parenteral nutrition in term and late preterm infants.
Lung inflammation and impaired alveolarization precede bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). Glucocorticoids are anti-inflammatory and reduce ventilator requirements in preterm infants. However, high-dose glucocorticoids inhibit alveolarization. The effect of glucocorticoids on lung function and structure in preterm newborns exposed to antenatal inflammation is unknown. We hypothesise that postnatal low-dose dexamethasone reduces ventilator requirements, prevents inflammation and BPD-like lung pathology, following antenatal inflammation.
Perinatal inflammation increases the risk for bronchopulmonary dysplasia in preterm neonates, but the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms remain largely unknown. Given their anti-inflammatory and regenerative capacity, multipotent adult progenitor cells (MAPC) are a promising cell-based therapy to prevent and/or treat the negative pulmonary consequences of perinatal inflammation in the preterm neonate.
Childhood outcomes following preterm birth are widely published, however long-term adult outcomes are less well described. We aimed to determine the quality of life and burden of co-morbidities experienced by preterm-born young adults in Western Australia.
Increasingly, preterm-born children are entering adulthood as survival at earlier gestational ages improves. However, there is little understanding of the lived experience in preterm-born adults.
Limited evidence suggests that airway epithelial structure and function is disrupted in very preterm infants; however, the epithelial morphology and physiology has not been well characterised following discharge from neonatal intensive care. This study aimed to characterise the nasal airway epithelium from 1-year-old survivors of very preterm birth.
To describe writhing General Movements Assessment (GMA) classification and General Movement Optimality Score-Revised (GMOS-R) profiles in the general population; to explore relationships between GMOS-R scores and GMA classification, age of assessment and infant socio-demographic factors; and to establish the inter-rater reproducibility of writhing age GMA classification and GMOS-R.