Navi Mumbai: Civic body's neonatal dept in Airoli turns out boon for newborn babies, does 1,053 successful deliveries in three years

The Neonatal Department at Rajmata Jijau Hospital, Airoli under the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation has turned out to be a boon for pregnant women and newborn babies. In the last three years, 1,053 successful deliveries have taken place in the medical facility.

Unit was started in 2019 aiming to provide quality neonatal services

On September 3, 2019, a 12-bed neonatal unit was started at Rajmata Jijau Hospital, Airoli under the supervision of the Medical Superintendent of the hospital Dr Varsha Rathod. Pediatricians Dr Amol Deshmukh and Dr Sachin Biradar.

Dr Varsha Rathore and Parisewak Prakash Barve selected a special group of nurses and sent them to reputed hospitals for training. The purpose was to provide quality pre-natal and post-natal services to pregnant mothers.

Department's several feats within short time

The lowest weight and shortest days of the premature baby in the hospital was 750 grams born at 26 weeks. The baby was in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for 73 days. The baby made it through the NICU after 73 days. The child is today three years old and healthy. There are several examples of the feat of this department created in the last three years.

The hospital has also successfully treated triplets born in 31 weeks. The babies weighed 1.4 kg, 1 kg and 1.3 kg, respectively. Normally, the weight of the newborn baby is around 3.5 kg. A baby weighs more than it can develop health complications. A kid weighing 4.55 kg was also delivered at the hospital. The 4.55 kg child was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension which caused severe difficulty in breathing in the baby. The baby was carefully treated with state-of-the-art methods and the baby also went home safely.

NMMC providing free services, expanding unit progressively

At present private NICUs cost a whopping Rs25,000-50,000 per day. However, the NMMC is providing it free of cost and this is a boon for poor and needy patients. Keeping in mind the need for expansion, the number of beds has been increased from 12 to 17 and the department has been equipped with 4 ventilators, a multiparameter, a syringe pump, a phototherapy machine, biliometer.