Question

1. Develop a Program: Prepare a detailed, long-term plan to boost the health and development of a preterm, low birth weight baby. What information and counseling will you give the parents? What educational activities will you recommend for the baby? Include the tests and other measures you will use to evaluate the baby. Write a minimum one page paper (Times new roman font & double spaced), and include the actions and recommendations in time sequence. In addition, write an explanation of each action and recommendation. Remember to cite the references using APA format.

Answer 1

Introduction: There is emphasis on providing care for the infants which are preterm during birth and have low birth weight. The various procedures involved in maintaining the healthcare of the child includes education of parents, development of strategies for providing optimum care to the underdevelopment children, facilities for providing nutrition and providing ambient environment with nourishment and care for the children suffering from underweight problems.

Theory: Low term children are born before the 37th week of pregnancy and suffer from different kinds of low birth weight ailments. There should be maintenance of health and hygiene of the female during term of pregnancy and prevent the chances of acquiring infection from microbes which can cause harm to the health of child and mother. WHO (world health organization) recommends the availability of midwifery nurses which can provide proper environment with food and water for the child and mother under conditions of proper health and hygiene. Another program involves the use of kangaroo care in which constant breastfeeding is provided to the child under maintenance of ambient health conditions. It is useful for a baby whose weight is less than 2Kg. There are special interventions for mother which should be considered like application of hormonal, pain killer injections and use of antibiotics to prevent infection. The underweight children are prone to serious other infections like neurological impairments, mental retardation and language development abnormalities which can effect the development of the child during different stages of growth as explained by Markestad in 2008. There should be intervention programs to prevent the onset of depression, stress and anxiety and appropriate psychological counseling should be provided to the parents of offspring. There should be essential feedback and communication between parents and counselors about the ways of providing support to the preterm birth babies. Spittle and Orton have conducted motor coordination and cognitive studies on school children including those who have low birth weight at birth. Pridham et al has studied different types of relationships among low birth weight children, parents, peers and nurses which is necessary for formation of a strong bond and relationship among them and essential for child's growth and development. There should be understanding and analysis of the race, ethnic background and gender of the child with respect to the parent relationship.There is availability of Cochrane library and online Pubmed and other sources which can be used for the collection of different sources where statistical survey and participation has been involved in the study of development of preterm babies. Various random customized trials were conducted with analysis of mean and standard deviation in the sample set.The factors which were studied in the mother were analysis of levels of stress, anxiety, depression, self-efficacy and sensitivity towards response in life. The birth of babies with intraventricular hemorrhage was studied and analyzed in detail.

There is Griffith Development Scale for the analysis of child growth upto the age of 18 months. As the children grow, there are other tests for checking and interpreting the psychological development of the child like Stanford-Binet test and Graham-Einhart test for the analysis upto four years of age. Various other sensory motor tests are conducted on children for analysis like Wechsler Intelligence Scale Bruininks-Oseretsky Scale, neuropsychological battery sensory tests on children. The various factors that are studied include the visuospatial coordination and capability, non-verbal reasoning and motor sensory coordination tests. The socioeconomic factor is essential for the analysis of Intelligence quotient of children with analysis of verbal and logical capabilities.

The stress, anxiety and depression tests were also conducted on parents to analyze the levels during stress in the stress index score during conditions of giving birth to preterm babies. Hospital Anxiety scale and State Trait anxiety inventory scale was analyzed and studied in detail for parents.

Conclusion:There should be practical training for the welfare of parent-child interaction during conditions of low preterm birth with monitoring and evaluation of the conditions. There should be self-efficacy and self-reflection of the coordination and interaction with child so as to provide necessary conditions for the growth of child. The condition of the child should be monitored by a physician who prescribes a chart of food items and necessary precautions required during breastfeeding required for the growth of children after low term birth.

Reference-

1) DEVELOPMENTAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TEST SCORES IN CHILDREN OF LOW BIRTH WEIGHT- Linda C. Eaves, J. C. Nuttall, H. Klonoff, H. G. Dunn, ,Pediatrics,January 1970, VOLUME 45 / ISSUE 1.

2) Psychological development in children born with very low birth weight after severe intrauterine growth retardation: a 10-year follow-up study- Smedler AC¹, Faxelius G, Bremme K, Lagerström M, Acta Paediatr. 1992 Mar;81(3):197-203.

3) School marks and IQ-test scores for low birth weight children at the age of 13.,Lagerström M¹, Bremme K, Eneroth P, Janson CG, Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. 1991 Jul 1;40(2):129-36.

4)Key components of early intervention programs for preterm infants and their parents: a systematic review and meta-analysis Karen M Benzies , Joyce E Magill-Evans , K Alix Hayden , Marilyn Ballantyne, Benzies et al. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth 2013, 13(Suppl 1):S10.