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Prematurity and low birthweight infants in resource limited settings

Guest Editors:
Daynia Elizabeth Ballot: University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Sherri Bucher: Indiana University Indianapolis, United States
Ashish KC: University of Gothenburg, Sweden


BMC Pediatrics called for submissions to our Collection on Prematurity and low birthweight infants in resource limited settings.

Prematurity and low birthweight carry significant implications for infant health and development, often requiring specialized care and interventions. However, resource-limited settings face substantial barriers in providing adequate neonatal care, including limited access to neonatal intensive care units, shortage of skilled healthcare professionals, and insufficient resources for essential treatments and interventions.

This collection aimed to explore the challenges resulting from premature and low birthweight infants in resource-limited settings, as well as to identify innovative approaches used to improve healthcare outcomes. 

Meet the Guest Editors

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Daynia Elizabeth Ballot: University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

Dr Ballot is a pediatrician and neonatologist with more than 25 years' experience in neonatal care at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, University of the Witwatersrand.  She has an interest in very low birth weight / preterm infants particularly quality improvement,  morbidity and mortality, neonatal sepsis and neurodevelopmental outcome. She has supervised 40 residents in neonatal research projects.  She has collaborations with Vanderbilt University in the United States of America and the University of Gothenberg in Sweden. Dr Ballot is currently the Head of School of Clinical Medicine at the University.

Sherri Bucher: Indiana University Indianapolis, United States

Dr Bucher is an award-winning global public health researcher, educator, technical expert, innovator, and implementation specialist with 16 years of expertise in health system strengthening for maternal, newborn, and child health. From 2008 to 2023, she contributed to the Kenya site of the NICHD-funded Global Network for Women’s and Children’s Health Research as a co-Investigator and US-based co-PI from 2017 to 2023. She is an International Mentor for Helping Babies Survive programs on behalf of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and a currently member of the AAP’s Global Neonatal Advisory Committee (Glo-NAC). Over the course of her career, Dr Bucher has mentored over 100 undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate mentees from multiple disciplines, including: public and global health, medicine, nursing, biomedical engineering, and open-source mobile app development

Ashish KC: University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Dr KC is an associate Professor and Senior Lecturer in the Global public health, at School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He is a perinatal epidemiologist  focusing on maternal mental health and improving care and survival of high risk infants and newborn. Dr KC has also being active and serving the scientific community as an editor for several journals across different publishers.
 

About the collection

BMC Pediatrics called for submissions to our Collection on Prematurity and low birthweight infants in resource limited settings.

Prematurity remains a pressing global health issue, disproportionately affecting communities with limited resources and healthcare infrastructure.  It remains the leading cause of death in children under the age of 5; in 2023 the World Health Organization reported on the survival rates of preterm infants, stating that more than 90% of extremely preterm infants (< 28 weeks) born in low-income countries die within the first few days following birth, yet in high-income settings, fewer than 10% of extremely preterm babies die. 

Extremely low, very low, and low birth weight infants can result from intrauterine growth restriction, prematurity, or both, contributing to a variety of poor health outcomes.  As with prematurity, low birthweight – particularly extremely and very low birthweight (ELBW; VLBW) – is closely associated with neonatal mortality and morbidity and is more common in resource-limited settings.  However there are gaps in the data in relation to resource-limited settings, as many births occur in homes or small-health facilities, which may lead to underreporting of, or misclassification of, prematurity and low birthweight categories. 

Prematurity and ELBW, VLBW, and LBW carry significant implications for infant health and development, often requiring specialized care and interventions. However, resource-limited settings face substantial barriers in providing adequate neonatal care, including limited access to neonatal intensive care units, shortage of skilled healthcare professionals, and insufficient resources for essential treatments and interventions, including long-care follow-up care and support for disabled infants and their families. 

This collection aimed to explore the challenges resulting from premature and low birthweight infants in resource-limited settings, as well as to identify innovative approaches used to improve healthcare outcomes.  

Potential topics of interest included, but are not limited to:

  • Estimates of morbidity and mortality among prematurely born and low birthweight infants across resource-limited settings
  • Barriers and facilitators to accessing quality neonatal care in underserved areas
  • Innovative and cost-effective strategies for the management of premature infants
  • Community-based interventions and approaches to improve neonatal outcomes
  • Long-term outcomes and follow-up care for premature and/or low birthweight infants in resource-limited settings
  • Ethical considerations related to the care and management of prematurely born and low birthweight infants in resource-limited settings
  • Promising interventions for the prevention of premature delivery and low birthweight infants

By highlighting the challenges, sharing best practices, and proposing innovative solutions, this collection aims to contribute to evidence-based strategies that will have a tangible impact on the health and well-being of premature and low birthweight infants in resource-limited settings.


Image credit: chaunpis / Getty Images / iStock

  1. This study aimed to compare the efficacy of neurally adjusted ventilatory assist (NAVA) to synchronized intermittent mandatory ventilation (SIMV) in preterm infants requiring mechanical ventilation after paten...

    Authors: Hui-Zi Lin, Yun-Feng Lin and Yi-Rong Zheng
    Citation: BMC Pediatrics 2024 24:277
    Content type: Research Published on:

  2. Neonatal respiratory failure (NRF) is a serious condition that often has high mortality and morbidity, effective interventions can be delivered in the future by identifying the risk factors associated with mor...

    Authors: Na Wang, Ke-Yu Lu, Shan-Yu Jiang, Hong-Wei Wu, Rui Cheng, Zhao-Jun Pan and Huai-Yan Wang
    Citation: BMC Pediatrics 2024 24:272
    Content type: Research Published on: