Intrauterine pneumonia is the most common cause of neonatal mortality. After birth, the lungs are the most important organ that helps the child adapt to life in the environment. Lesion of the lungs disrupts this process, so often such children from the delivery room immediately go to intensive care units for newborns for intensive care and artificial ventilation.
Causes of intrauterine pneumonia in newborns
The most common causes of intrauterine pneumonia are the presence in the body of a pregnant woman of viruses and bacteria that can penetrate the hematoplacental barrier to the fetus and affect the lungs. It is possible to assume the probability of intrauterine pneumonia, if the pregnant woman suffered ARVI or other infectious disease in late pregnancy.
The cause of pneumonia in newborns can be aspiration (ingestion) of amniotic fluid during prolonged childbirth, a pregnant pregnancy. Especially dangerous is the ingress of newborn meconium (first-born feces) into the respiratory tract. The risk of pneumonia in the fetus is higher in premature infants.
Signs of intrauterine pneumonia in newborns
The first signs of intrauterine pneumonia may appear in the first hours or days after birth. Such symptoms include:
- shortness of breath;
- bluish color of the skin;
- moaning sounds.
Treatment of intrauterine pneumonia in newborns
Suspected of a pneumonia in a newborn child, the neonatologist should transfer it to the neonatal department, place in a cuvette with a constant supply of moistened oxygen, immediately prescribe antibacterial therapy. If the condition worsens and the child needs to be transferred to an artificial lung ventilation, the child is transferred to the intensive care unit of the newborn.
Consequences of intrauterine pneumonia
If timely medical assistance and helps the baby survive, it can leave consequences in the form of atelectasis formation (areas of collapsed pulmonary tissue) or replacement of sites of inflammation with a connective tissue. Modified parts of the lung tissue of such a child can not perform its function, and subsequently in such lungs can develop emphysema (areas of increased airiness of lung tissue).
Prevention of intrauterine pneumonia is the prevention of ARVI and influenza in the mother, especially in the last weeks of pregnancy.