Care of triplets

Press, 5 August 1985, Page 12

Care of triplets

Sir,—All correspondents appear to have misunderstood points in my original letter, which was to draw attention to the contribution to the care of these babies by the Neonatal Unit at the Christchurch Women’s Hospital. This is the only neo-natal intensive care facility in Christchurch and Dr Pryor should be well aware that there is a weight of evidence to the effect that in the case of predictably high-risk deliveries, such as premature triplets, the outcome for the babies is considerably improved if those infants are delivered in the centre with the intensive care facility and not transferred after birth. To P. D. Mortlock, we have no wish to encourage all normal-term deliveries to take place at Christchurch Women’s Hospital but encourage ante-natal transfer where feasible for high-risk pregnancies. To Anne French, the State subsidises private care in many ways, from the training of medical students who are subsequently free to practise in private, to a variety of wildlyuneconomic laboratory tests. — Yours, etc., BRIAN DARLOW, Senior Lecturer in Paediatrics. August 2, 1985. [This correspondence is now closed.—Editor.]