NOVEMBER was originally designated as Prematurity Awareness Month by March of Dimes in the United States in 2003, in an attempt to spread awareness about the burden of prematurity and to drive a reduction in mortality.

November 17 was first recognised as World Prematurity Day on 2008 by the European Foundation for Care of the Newborn Infant (EFCNI), in honour of the birthday of one of the founding fathers’ daughter. Both of these initiatives have become global phenomena, with many organisations lending their voices to this important cause.

Prematurity is defined as birth prior to 37 completed weeks and is associated with many complications related to underdevelopment of the baby’s organs. Many of these babies are critically ill and require time in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) as a result. According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) most recent Born too Soon report, 13.4 million babies are born prematurely worldwide. In 2020 nearly one million newborns died due to complications of pre-term birth (one baby every 40 seconds) and millions more survived with disabilities.

Those are staggering statistics. While there have been many advances in neonatology which have resulted in improved survival of these tiny babies, the rate of pre-term birth has remained essentially unchanged. WHO and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported pre-term birth rates globally of 9.9 per cent in 2010 and 9.9 per cent in 2020. Equally concerning is the fact that the highest pre-term birth rates and associated mortality occur in the developing world.

The theme for World Prematurity Day this year is ‘Over 13 million babies born too soon every year. Access to quality care everywhere!’ This represents a clarion call to governmental and non-governmental organisations worldwide to invest in increased funding and research focused on improving the quality of care delivered to these vulnerable babies. It has been proven that the quality of care delivered even within the first hour of life to pre-term infants, referred to as the golden hour, can impact the trajectory of that child’s life and that of their families.

This recognition is the driving force behind The Caring for Miracles Foundation’s mission, which is to, “ensure that all newborns have access to equitable, optimal health care through capacity building by equipping, educating, and nurturing resilience of the health-care teams and the families that they serve!” It is through this holistic approach we play our part in improving care delivery, as we work with the NICU teams that we adopt towards attaining and sustaining the United Nations Sustainable Development mortality target of <12/1000 live births.

As part of our education mandate we hosted an information booth at Churchill Square at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), our first adoptee, on November 15 in an attempt to spread awareness about this important phenomenon. We will also be hosting our fourth annual Caring for Babies Born too Soon symposium under the theme, ‘Beyond the Golden Hour: Supporting the NICU Family’s Mental Health and Resilience’. This symposium — which will feature a multidisciplinary panel of international and local speakers as well as the perspective of parents of former premature infants — seeks to address a number of issues impacting the experience of the NICU journey for families, and consequently their ability to thrive in this environment. It is becoming very clear that the NICU journey can be a source of toxic stress for babies and families — an experience that can affect the mother-baby dyad and impact outcomes.

We hope to equip attendees with the tools to recognise a family in distress, to be empowered to mitigate against a negative perinatal experience and the attendant impact, and to position the family during this vulnerable period to have the best experience possible. The symposium is targeted at all health-care providers involved in perinatal and neonatal care including obstetricians, neonatologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, paediatricians, paediatric surgeons; obstetric, paediatric medicine, and surgical residents and interns; general practitioners; neonatal and paediatric nurses and midwives; the allied health team; medical and nursing students. We also welcome parents and families of NICU graduates and any interested community members. There will be an opportunity for all attendees to interface with the expert panel. You may register by visiting https://www.caringformiracles.com.

Dr Jillian M Lewis is a consultant neonatologist at University Hospital of the West Indies; associate lecturer, The University of the West Indies; and founder/ chair for the board of directors at The Caring for Miracles Foundation.