MeSH: Infant, Premature

  • Antenatal prediction models for short- and medium-term outcomes in preterm infants

    Introduction: In extremely and very preterm infants, predicting individual risks for adverse outcomes antenatally is challenging but necessary for risk-stratified perinatal management and parents’ participation in decision-making about treatment. Our aim was to develop and validate prediction models for short-term (neonatal period) and medium-term (3 years of age) outcomes based on antenatal maternal and fetal…

  • Something must happen before first breath

    BACKGROUND: Definition and concept of the ‘beginning of human life’ are weakened by co-existing contrasting hypotheses based on humanistic or religious beliefs rather than scientific foundations. This plethora of conceptually distant views have important common concerns in different fields of science and shape, in turn, several societal aspects including laws related, for instance, to inheritance…

  • Ethical issues in treatment of babies born at 22 weeks of gestation

    Many centres now report that more than half of babies born at 22 weeks survive and most survivors are neurocognitively intact. Still, many centres do not offer life-sustaining treatment to babies born this prematurely. Arguments for not offering active treatment reflect concerns about survival rates, rates of neurodevelopmental impairment and cost. In this essay, I…

  • Implementing music therapy in a Norwegian neonatal intensive care unit

    BACKGROUND: Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) music therapy is an emerging discipline. There is a growing evidence base supporting its use, with an emphasis on the immediate and short-term positive effects on infants’ physiological responses and parents’ experiences. AIM: To explore the implementation of music therapy aligned with standards of neonatal care and as an…