Better care for newborns

With a view to providing better treatment to critical neonatal patients, the authorities of Chattogram Medical College Hospital introduced Special Care Neonatal Unit yesterday, marking the birth anniversary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and National Children's Day.

CMCH Director Brig Gen Shamim Ahsan inaugurated the 30-bed unit established under the Neonatal Ward at the hospital.

The critical neonatal patients -- aged between 0 day and 28 days -- will benefit from the unit, said doctors.

Earlier, the newborns had to receive treatment with other patients at the Neonatal Ward, hospital sources said.

Tahmina Begum, who transferred her pre-mature baby to the newly-introduced unit from a private hospital, said doctors at the private hospital suggested her to keep the baby in an incubator, which she could not afford.

"At the neonatal unit, babies like mine will get better treatment for free," she said.

According to doctors, not only the newborns, but also babies born underweight, with infection and breathing difficulties will be treated there.

The unit is equipped with modern treatment facilities -- including phototherapy, ventilator and maintenance of temperature, said the director.

Prof Dr Jagadis Chandra Das, head of Neonatal Ward, said alongside other facilities, Kangaroo Mother Care has been introduced at the unit.

Kangaroo care, also called skin-to-skin contact, is a technique of newborn care where babies are kept chest-to-chest and skin-to-skin with a parent, typically their mother, said Dr Dhiman Chowdhury, a consultant at the pediatric ward of the hospital.