Low Birth Weight Most Common Reason for Admission

A new study looks at multiples born in a special baby care unit in a resource-limited setting in Nigeria. The researchers wanted to explore how the babies were doing after delivery. The results were published in the Journal of Clinical Neonatology in 2018. The researchers looked at women admitted over a three year period from 2011 to the end of 2013. The researchers retrieved information about the babies gestational age at birth, their weights, genders and how they were doing after birth. 111 women carrying multiples were included in the study. There were 46 sets of twins, six sets of triplets and one case with a single surviving twin.

1/3 of the babies were admitted for observation

The study found that the majority of babies weighed below 2.5 kilos (5lbs, 8oz) at birth. That was the case for 76.6 percent of the babies. Low birth weight was the most common reason for admission followed by sepsis with low birth weight. However, about one third of the babies were admitted for observation. That was especially the case for those babies with mothers that had emergency c-sections. All babies in the observation group and those with birth asphyxia were successfully discharged. 18 deaths were recorded. They were recorded in the groups with low birth weight and sepsis with low birth weight.