ABSTRACT
The challenge of neonatology ......................................................... 281
Organization and provision of neonatal care ......................... 281
Delivery room care ................................................................................. 283
Care of the normal term newborn baby ................................... 286
Prophylaxis and prevention of disease in the
well newborn .................................................................................... 292
Infant feeding ............................................................................................. 295
Care of the ill term newborn baby ................................................ 296
Management of the preterm infant ............................................. 298
Additional reading and website resources ............................. 300
More than half a million babies are born every year in the United Kingdom, 4 million in the United States, 25 million in India
and over 130 million worldwide. In the industrialized countries of the world, less than 1 per cent of these babies will die,
and at least half the deaths are among premature babies with a birth weight of 1.5 kg. The picture is very different in the
least developed countries, where the death rate is between 2 and 8 per cent. The countries of sub-Saharan Africa suffer the
highest perinatal mortality rates in the world, around 80 per 1000 live births. Throughout the world, babies are still dying
from prematurity, infections, congenital malformations, and hypoxia or trauma acquired intrapartum.
