PREMS IN THE BEST OF HANDS

Did you know that Victoria has the world’s best survival rate for premature babies?

The Statewide study of which your child is a part, VICS (Victorian Infant Collaborative Study) has followed the progress of premature babies over two decades. The results are published in world recognised medical and scientific journals.

Research team leader Professor Lex Doyle said that the survival rate of babies of birth weight 500-999 grams born in Victoria had improved from one in four to three in four in less than 18 years.

He said that one of the major reasons for the increased survival is that most of these tiny babies are now born in one of the three major maternity hospitals in the State.

When Prof Doyle started working with premature babies in 1975 there were few specialised intensive care beds and ventilators were not suitable for tiny babies.

Now that the survival rate for the very tiny premature babies is so high, our goal now is to make sure that these very early babies are able to look forward to a healthy life free of any major health problems.

One of the ways we are able to monitor the health of the tiny babies is to have a group of children who are born in the same year but are full term and of normal birth weight. These children are very important in our studies and we are grateful to their parents for allowing them to help us in our research.