One in ten of the newborns in the Hospital de Basurto is premature.

-The length of stay of premature babies in the service of gynaecology and obstetrics of the bilbaino hospital is less than two months

-perinatal mortality has undergone a major decline in the past 40 years, rising from 20 to 5 deaths per 1,000 births

-the Centre has commemorated its 40th anniversary this Friday at the Euskalduna Palace in Bilbao with a day special in which experts in maternity of Osakidetza have reviewed the history of the Center

Bilbao, December of 2011- one in ten babies born at the Hospital de Basurto was born prematurely (born before 37 weeks of gestation) and 1.5% of these patients weighing less than 1,500 grams. The length of stay of premature babies in the service of gynaecology and obstetrics of the Bilbao hospital is less than two months, time during which receive specialised assistance, with greater involvement of the parents.

The Chief of section of Neonatology of the service of Pediatrics of the Hospital de Basurto, Alberto Pérez Legorburu, has released this data during a special conference held Friday at the Euskalduna Palace in Bilbao to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the gynaecology service of the health centre of Bilbao.

In this regard, Perez explained that the Neonatology today is characterized by a high rate of survival and getting better quality of life ” because new special techniques for respiratory and hemodynamic, support as well as nutrition guidelines have been developed and a series of procedures in the neonatal intensive care ensuring minor associated complications have optimized ”.

These gains have been particularly reflected in the treatment of the newly born very premature, resulting in a significant improvement in the last decade of perinatal mortality and morbidity indicators ”, has underlined.

In this regard, the Chief of section of Neonatology of the service of Pediatrics of the Hospital from Bilbao Basurto pointed out that the most determining factor in these large premature morbidity and mortality are the weeks of gestation, in such a way that in our survival in those who are born during the week 24 of gestation is 50% and 25-26 weeks, reaches and exceeds 80%. ”.

For his part, Dr. Jenaro Oraa Zubeldia, responsible for the unity of Fetal pathophysiology, pointed out that perinatal mortality has undergone a major decline in the past 40 years, rising from 20 to 5 deaths per 1000 births ”.

This 75% decline is due mainly to a significant step forward in the Perinatal Medicine, i.e. antenatal care of pregnant women, the intrapartum fetal monitoring and the progress of the Neonatology. This improvement of the Perinatal mortality involves a number of drawbacks among them the important increase of the caesarean section rate, from 3-4% in the 1970s to 12-13 per cent in recent years ”, has been completed.