Do Premature Babies have complications later in life? - Dr. Himani Sharma of Cloudnine Hospitals

Generally the earlier the baby is born, the higher is the risk of complications. That means in layman language, those babies who are born before 32 weeks of pregnancy, they have chance of developing complications more there are short term complications that might be aberrant during pregnancy and they can be handled very well in a tertiary care setup with the proper NICU care. But there are long term complications that are apparent only after the baby is discharged. The most common of one of the problem is cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy involves the brain of the baby. There is a permanent injury to the brain of the baby. The baby can manifest with abnormal muscle movements what abnormal postures the other problem can be with hearing. It is seen that hearing loss is very common due to the premature delivery because of the improper development of the hearing system of the baby. Some babies can also present with vision problems this happens because of the retinopathies of the prematurity. Retina is a very important part of the eye of any individual. Because of the prematurity of that retina, sometimes there are chances of premature separation of retina, which is known as retinal detachment. That sudden loss of vision in the babies. Most important thing that parents have to keep track is the impaired learning in these babies and the delayed development of milestone. So this is commonly seen and they might require certain amount of care to handle these difficulties. Other problem with decreased immunity is their immunity is not fully developed as a full term infants. So definitely chances of getting opportunistic infections like asthma or because of decreased immunity, more chances of infections are there. Then feeding problems, sudden infant death syndrome has been seen in these babies. So parents have to be counseled regarding the long term complications in these babies.