World Prematurity Day 2024

Published on Friday, 15 November 2024

World Prematurity Day takes place on 17th November each year and aims to raise awareness of premature birth. In support of this day, the NPEU Clinical Trials Unit (CTU) would like to take this opportunity to honour and celebrate premature babies, their families, and the health care professionals dedicated to their care.

At the NPEU CTU, our research focuses on improving the health and wellbeing of mothers and babies during the perinatal period. We aim to improve care and outcomes for babies and families, with several studies focusing on premature infants, including:

Baby-OSCAR: Finding out whether or not a confirmed large Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA) in very premature babies should be treated with ibuprofen within 72 hours of birth. Find out the results here: www.npeu.ox.ac.uk/baby-oscar/study-findings

neoGASTRIC: Investigating whether routine or no-routine measurement of gastric residual volumes helps babies reach full feeds more quickly.

DOLFIN: Exploring whether adding a daily nutrient supplement to feeds supports neurological development.

BASE: Studying the use of sodium bicarbonate in very preterm babies with metabolic acidosis.

SurfON: Examining whether early surfactant use helps manage breathing problems in premature infants.

POLAR: Looking at whether giving a higher level of positive end expiratory pressure (PEEP) helps makes it easier for babies to breathe.

Watch video here

We have also been working collaboratively on a Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) for the Most Premature Babies. This research aims to identify and prioritise important areas of research to help the most premature babies (babies born before 25 weeks of gestation, so born at least 4 months early). Our collaboration includes the James Lind Alliance, the NPEU Clinical Trials Unit, and colleagues in Australia at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and the Royal Women's Hospital. We have surveyed parents of premature babies and adults who were themselves born extremely premature, along with health care professionals such as doctors, nurses and occupational therapists, to help identify the top 10 research questions. We hope identifying these key research areas will help guide future funding.

Watch our video to find out the top 10 research questions for babies born before 25 weeks.

At the NPEU CTU we will continue to do all we can to support and deliver research for premature babies. For details of all our trials and publications please see our website.