Appeal for the new-born

Press, 8 March 1982, Page 14

Appeal for the new-born

One in every 10 babies born in New Zealand has either a mental or physical delect. An organisation called Foundation for the Newborn is trying to find out why.

It is holding a national house-to-house appeal on March 15. Funds from this will allow it to continue its support of research into perinatal care, and to find out why so many babies are born less than perfect. The research work began after an initial house-to-house appeal in 1976, organised by New Zealand Round Tables for the foundation, which was then set up as a trust. It was known as Foundation 41 - relating to the 40 weeks of pregnancy and the first week of life.

The money from that appeal, however, has been used for research projects and has now run out. ■

The trustees considered that this was not enough reason to wind up the Foundation for the Newborn (as it is now called) trust. They decided instead to go to the country for extra funds. So Round Table is again helping to organise the appeal.

The research work is coordinated, so that there is no doubling up of projects, and findings are published from' time to time. Only three other major centres in the world — Sydney, Cincinatti, and Edinburgh — are conducting significant pre-natal research on a similar scale. New Zealand is said to be an ideal country for conducting such research because of its small population. This means that facts can be more easily gathered and workers can study a more representative cross-section of people without the problems involved in a highly populated country. Already, Foundation for the' Newborn-sponsored research has received international acclaim for studies in developing the premature baby's lungs before birth to enable it to breathe effectively before it is born. These studies rely on continued assistance from the March 15 appeal.

Future research could include the prevention of congenital malformations, an understanding of why some babies show growth retardation in the uterus, what triggers off labour, and what causes prematurity.

Research funded by the foundation into foetal breathing showed that babies have to breathe while they are in the womb. If they didn't, they couldn’t live.

“Foetal breathing is no longer regarded as some obscure theory. It is a fact and, without it, a baby’s lungs would not be developed enough for it to breathe air once it is born," says Dr Colin Mantell, from the National Women's Hospital, in Auckland. “We used to think, that the baby was practising for breathing once it was born, but it is now clear that babies need the breathing movements, the changes in pressure, to help their lungs grow.”

The main interest in foetal breathing has been in evaluating the development of the foetus’s special property of being able to start and stop breathing. “We are hoping that this property, called apnoea, will shed some light on the control of the on-off switch, which is apparent in the foetus as well as the newborn."

Dr Mantell explains that there are two times in a newborn baby's life when it

stops breathing. One is when it is born prematurely and is in the' neo-natal unit of a hospital. “The other time is in a cot-death, or sudden infant death syndrome.” In Christchurch, one in 165 babies die every year from cot deaths - one of the highest incidences. in the world. In the rest of New Zealand, the figure is. about one in 250. Most cot deaths occur in the first six months of life.

“Studying foetal breathing may help in an understanding" of the drive and reasons for the baby to stop breathing. It may then show us why they just stop,” Dr Mantell explained. Foetal $ breathing is measured by ultrasound, or by listening to the flow of blood with a foetal heart detector.

“From such tests, it. is known that smoking and drug taking on the mother’s part reduce the amount of time a baby spends breathing in the womb.

“Common drugs such as aspirin can affect the breathing patterns of the baby, as can blood pressure or growth retardation.”