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Alert over care of premature babies
Sophie Goodchild, Health and Social Affairs Correspondent7 Sep 2009
The lives of premature babies are being compromised by NHS staff shortages, the head of a leading charity claimed today.
Andy Cole, chief executive of Bliss, called on ministers to improve special care baby services so infants receive "the very best start in life".
Some 82,000 babies are born premature or sick in Britain every year and 13,000 of these are cared for in London.
Today Bliss highlighted their needs at a new exhibition at Spitalfields Market.
Born Too Soon features images of children born extremely prematurely at hospitals including University College London and Chelsea and Westminster.
A neonatal taskforce will publish recommendations this month on improving care for premature babies, who are at greater risk of health problems.
Mr Cole said: "Each of these vulnerable babies deserves the very best care. But staffing shortages are all too apparent.
"Outcomes for babies are being compromised, while parents are affected emotionally and financially at what is already an extremely stressful time.
"We are calling for the Government and NHS to invest in improving special-care baby services so these children can have the very best start in life."
Among portraits at the exhibition are some of twins Alice and Filippo Russo from west London, who were delivered at 24 weeks weighing 1lb7oz and 1lb8oz.
They were born on 2 August 2006 and spent their first five months in Chelsea and Westminster hospital.
Their mother Antonella, 35, said the advice she received from doctors and from Bliss was a lifeline in the first months after the births.
Her pregnancy had been trouble-free for the first few months until she started to bleed abnormally.
Doctors admitted her to hospital where she gave birth naturally with the help of two teams of specialists, one for each twin. The infants were then put in incubators.
Mrs Russo, an interpreter, added: "It was difficult thinking of anything else during that time. I had no knowledge of what to expect.
"Because the twins were so early we didn't know what the future would hold. What was really important was the psychological support we had from the doctors."
Since then Alice and Filippo have made good progress, although their development has been slower than babies born full-term.
The exhibition runs until12 September at Spitalfields Market and then from 28 September to 16 October at City Hall.
Pictures were taken by photojournalist Nicola Kurtz, who has won an Amnesty International award for her work.
