Neonatal: Nearly 1 in 10 babies here born prematurely

SINGAPORE - Singapore's birth rate has been declining, but the proportion of premature babies has risen from 7.2 per cent to 9.5 per cent of births each year over the past two decades, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said on Saturday.

This could be because women are having babies later and more couples are opting for assisted reproduction, among other factors, he said.

Mr Gan was speaking at the official opening of the expanded Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH), where the tiniest premature babies are cared for, some for several months.

The unit now has a bed capacity of 32, up from 24 earlier, with plans to have 40 beds by 2015. Other Singapore hospitals have a combined capacity of about 40 NICU beds.

The NICU of KKH has been seeing between 400 and 450 patients a year, up 30 per cent from a decade ago, and more than nine in 10 survive.

More than 4,000 premature babies were born in Singapore last year.

There is a dedicated nurse for every baby on a ventilator. For those in stable condition, there is one nurse for every two babies.

The hospital said that while most babies are discharged within a few days or weeks, a small number of more serious cases stay from one to six months.

Bills, after subsidies, may range from $10,000 to $60,000.

In March, the Government extended MediShield coverage to babies with neonatal and congenital conditions. Needy families can also tap Medifund Junior as well as KKH's own $4 million endowment fund to help pay bills.

Associate Professor Victor Samuel Rajadurai, who heads KKH's neonatology department, said the hospital's most premature baby who is doing well was born at just 23 weeks. However, disability rates are high for most babies born so early.

The two smallest survivors at KKH, who are doing well, weighed 435g and 470g at birth.

Together with countries like Japan, Luxembourg and Sweden, Singapore has the lowest neonatal mortality rate in the world - of one per 1,000 live births - according to the latest report by the World Health Organisation, issued earlier this year.

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