Active clinical trials for "Premature Birth"

Infants born prematurely at will be asked to participate in this randomized controlled trial at a corrected gestational age of 24-37 weeks. Infants will be randomly selected to each of the two groups: intervention and control. Infants in the treatment group will receive six intervention days over a two-week period, 3 sessions per week. Each intervention day consists of each of the two interventions in a random sequence: no intervention/silence and live ocean disc instrument intervention. The sound decibel level will also be recorded and maintained at 40-65dB to prevent overstimulation. Each infant will thus receive control and ocean disc intervention on the same day in the NICU. Interventions will be given in a randomized order (i.e., first ocean disc or first silence, randomized to AM or PM), with observation occurring for 10 minutes before each intervention, 15 minutes during each intervention, and 10 minutes after each per session. There will be 3 sessions per week for a two-week randomized treatment schedule. For each infant, data on total apnea time, mean respiratory rate, heart rate, O2 levels and behavior rating during will be collected. The sound decibel level will also be recorded and maintained at 40-65dB to prevent overstimulation and hearing damage. Near-infrared light spectroscopy (NIRS) data on cerebral oxygenation will also be collected. Observations will be recorded on the infant's activity or when change occurs, such as a pacifier falling out. Parents and nurses will be asked to behave as they normally would during routine care.

This is a pilot project designed to test the feasibility of implementing a community health worker (CHW)-led intervention to improve nutritious food access and consumption among pregnant people and to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach. The project will be conducted in partnership with the Greater Cleveland Food Bank and the Better Health Partnership Community Health Worker HUB

This is a randomized comparative effectiveness study of two forms of enhanced prenatal care among 2,600 Medi-Cal eligible pregnant women in Fresno, California. The goal is to see whether group prenatal care with wrap around services versus individual prenatal care supplemented by services covered by the California Department of Public Health Comprehensive Perinatal Services Program (CPSP) results in lower rates of preterm birth, less depression and anxiety, and more respectful and greater satisfaction with prenatal care.

Background: Preterm infants are at risk for developing altered trajectories of cognitive, social, and linguistic competences compared to a term population. This is mainly due to medical and environmental factors, as they are exposed to an atypical auditory environment and, simultaneously, to long periods of early separation from their parents. The short-term effects of Early Vocal Contact (EVC) on an infant's early stability have been investigated, but currently, there is limited evidence of its impact on the infant's autonomic nervous system maturation, as indexed by the heart rate variability, as well as on its long-term impact on infant neurodevelopment. This multi-centric study aims to investigate the effects of EVC on a preterm infant's physiology, neurobehaviour, and development. Methods: Eighty stable preterm infants, born at 25 to 32 weeks and 6 days gestational age, without specific abnormalities, will be selected and randomized to either an intervention or a control group. The intervention group will receive EVC: mothers talking and singing to their preterm infants for 10 minutes thrice a week for 2 weeks. Mothers in the control group will be encouraged to spend the same amount of time next to the incubator, observing the infant's behaviour through a standard cluster of indicators. Infants will be assessed at baseline, at the end of the intervention, at term equivalent age, and at 3, 6, 12- and 24-months corrected age, with a battery of physiological, neurobehavioral, and developmental measures. Discussion: Early interventions in the neonatal intensive care unit have shown important effects on the neurodevelopment of preterm infants, lowering the negative long-term effects of an atypical auditory and interactional environment. This study will provide new insights into the mother-infant early contact as protective intervention against the sequelae of prematurity during the sensitive period of development. An early intervention, such as EVC, is intuitive and easy to implement in the daily care of preterm infants. However, its long-term effects on infant neurodevelopment and on maternal sensitivity and stress still need accurate investigations.

The purpose of this study is to assess knowledge about emotional connection, attitude about relational health, and efficacy of Welch Emotional Connection Screen (WECS) training in the NICU. The investigators seek to discern if through this didactic training, frontline NICU clinicians can be taught to reliably use the WECS to rate parent-child relational health. Additionally, the investigators seek to learn if there is construct and theoretical validity of the hospitalized infant preterm WECS by correlating WECS scores to physiological, behavioral and mental health markers for parent and infant.

Mortality in very preterm infants has decreased significantly over the past twenty years. However, neuromotor, behavioral and cognitive development disorders are more common in these children born before 33 weeks of gestation as compared to term born infants. These neurodevelopmental disorders include difficulties with self-regulation, tone, posture or poor quality movements as well as inadequate responses to sensory simulation. Post-hospital discharge follow-up and interventionsof children born very preterm ares very heterogeneous in France. They are mainly carried out in a rehabilitation center, based on caregivers whereas IBAIP is carried out at home and family centered. Early interventions during hospitalization or after discharge appear potentially of great interest in improving the neurodevelopemental outcome of the very preterm infants. Several early interventions have been developed and evaluated in other countries. These interventions are designed to be used early in life, mainly during the first 3 years of life, and are based on brain plasticity and intense synaptogenesis during this period of life. The IBAIP (Infant Behavior Assessment and Intervention Program) was developed on the same theoretical foundations as the NIDCAP (Neonatal Individualized Development Care and Assessment Program). IBAIP consists of providing the child and his family with an intervention, at home, starting just before hospital discharge up to a 6 months corrected age. .The aim of IBAIP is to support developmental functions including infant's self-regulation and focus on improving the responsiveness of parents' infant interactions.

Antenatal family counseling for anticipated extremely preterm deliveries remains ethically and practically challenging for maternal-fetal medicine specialists and neonatologists alike. The overall goal of this project is to improve antenatal counseling and counseling outcomes for families facing anticipated extremely preterm delivery through innovative, interdisciplinary simulation-based education for maternal fetal medicine specialists and neonatologists, using language preferred by families, and focusing on eliciting values and building partnerships through advanced communication and relational skills.

The practices of the neonatal intensive care unit that reduce the stress of premature babies and respond to behavioral cues have a positive effect on the development of newborns. The stress experienced by premature infants affects the baby's behavior and laboratory findings. Massage is an effective application in facilitating the adaptation of premature babies to extrauterine life and ensuring that they are least affected by adverse environmental conditions. Massage in premature babies has an important place in reducing stress and supporting psychological, mental and physiological development as a healthy tactile stimulus.

PAINT18 is a nutrition study focusing on the effect of arginine supplementation on immune function in preterm infants. The investigators will explore the effect of current intravenous feeding (parenteral nutrition (PN) formulations on blood arginine levels and the genes that are involved in body nutrition and fighting infection in premature babies. The investigators will also investigate the effect of supplementing arginine on these genes. The investigators will undertake a single centre exploratory physiological study in 24 very premature infants receiving PN. 16 of these infants will be supplemented with arginine. The investigators will record nutritional intake and routine biochemical testing data (which includes amino acid levels) collected over the first 30 days of life. The investigators will take blood for analysis at prespecified intervals for RNA sequencing, ammonia and IGF-1 levels. RNA sequencing findings will allow the investigators to describe the effect of arginine on gene activity in preterm infants The investigators hypothesise that arginine supplementation will result in changes in gene expression that are consistent with changes in T-cell function and associated inflammatory pathways.

Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP); It is a disease of premature and low birth weight infants, characterized by incomplete vascularization of the retina, etiology and pathogenesis of which is unknown, and causes vision loss. There is an increase in the incidence and severity of ROP development in direct proportion to the decrease in birth week and birth weight. While ROP is a problem below 32 weeks of gestation in developed countries, it is reported to develop severely up to 34 weeks of gestation in developing countries. In a multicenter study conducted by the Turkish Neonatology Society in our country, the frequency of ROP in very low birth weight preterm infants was found to be 42%, and the frequency of advanced ROP was 11%. The incidence of ROP in babies with a gestational age of 33-35 weeks was 6.1%, and advanced ROP was 6 per thousand. The frequency of ROP was found to be 10.3% in babies with a birth weight of 1500-2000 grams, and severe ROP was reported in 19 of these babies. ROP examination is a procedure that causes pain, deterioration in comfort and physiological changes in preterm newborns. After this examination, an increase in blood pressure and heart rate and a decrease in oxygen saturation are observed. Pharmacological and non-pharmacological (non-pharmacological) methods are used to reduce the pain and increase the comfort level of the premature newborn. As a pharmacological method, there is no other routine method used to reduce pain other than the administration of local anesthetic drops before the examination. Because of this situation, nurses apply various non-pharmacological methods to alleviate pain. These methods are; breast milk, sucrose use, oral dextrose use, non-nutritive sucking, positioning, listening to music and mother's voice. In the literature, no specific study was found in which music was used to reduce pain and increase the comfort level during the ROP examination. Therefore, this research will be carried out to determine the effect of different music played on the pain and comfort level of premature babies during the retinopathy examination.