A newborn baby does not have to have an illness in the normal sense to be very ill: simply being born early or very small can lead to a very precarious existence, requiring extreme care, and being a twin or a triplet will alone often lead to very low birthweight, and to all its attendant risks.
Any newborn requires much more attention to a controlled environment (notably temperature) than later on as well as regular feeds to maintain hydration
A premature baby, or a very small one, may also suffer from lack of oxygen, one of the causes of which may be a lack of surfactant - a special product of the lungs of a fetus as they mature which enables them to expand at birth and without which the neonate may require artificial ventilation to expand the lungs in a tightly controlled fashion, and to maintain oxygenation of the blood
All of these potentially severe problems, changing from minute to minute, may require neonatal intensive care and highly skilled and experienced supervision
This provides the rationale for the availability in our hospital, for a neonate requiring it, of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, designed to provide just these things
12, Idowu Martins Street (next to Mega Plaza),Victoria Island, Lagos
+ 234 (0)1 262 1234 (Emergency), 271 5340 - 9 (10 Lines)
Fax: + 234 (0)1 261 0442
www.reddingtonhospital.com
E-Mail: info@reddingtonhospital.com
