Fifth of newborns in neonatal unit

31 July 2007

BRUSSELS – Last year 18 percent of newborns born in Flanders were placed in a neonatal care unit after birth. This has emerged from figures from the Study Centre for Perinatal Epidemiology (SPE). “The children are often healthy and don’t belong there,” the centre says.

An admission figure of 18 percent pushes Flanders far above other western countries when it comes to babies in neonatal care. In the Netherlands for instance “only” 10 percent of babies are admitted to a neonatal unit.

“An explanation probably has to do with the number of caesarean sections,” says scientific chairman Hendrik Cammu.

“More than 25 percent of the newborns admitted to neonatal care have been born by C-section. That fact alone is apparently reason enough in Flanders to refrain from placing a child in its mother’s room. This drives the costs of the neonatal care unit up unnecessarily, and that is not the idea,” Cammu says.

Subject: Belgian news