Neurodevelopment of Preterm Neonate: Care Interventions for Optimal Growth and Development

Running head: NEURODEVELOPMENT OF PRETERM NEONATE
Neurodevelopment of preterm neonate
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NEURODEVELOPMENT OF PRETERM NEONATE
Introduction:
After birth care and nurturing plays a fundamental role in the growth and
development of the child as it continues to growth and develop with time. Especially for the
preterm babies, the importance of the growth and development focused care holds
tremendous value in preserving and protecting their physical and neurological development.
Preterm babies are the result of premature birth facilitated by any or a variety of gestational
complications which turn the amniotic environment difficult to sustain for the foetus, which
in turn requires immediate operation to take the baby out of its mother’s womb (Vinturache et
al., 2016). On a more elaborative note, prematurity can be defined as the concept that
encompasses the broad category of neonates that are born at less than the 37 weeks of
gestational period which is the standard pregnancy to birth period.
It has to be mentioned in this context that the premature babies are not fully
developed and their development progress inside the womb stops abruptly when the
prematurity occurs. Hence, their overall development especially the neurodevelopmental
procedure is left abruptly incomplete which can lead to various complications as the babies
continue to grow. Preterm birth is one of the leading cause of neonatal mortality, sensory and
intellectual disabilities; and one of the major contributing factor leading to the anomaly is the
lack of adequate care interventions taken for the preterm neonates with respect to their
required neurodevelopment (Li, Chen, Jaakkola, Williams & Guo, 2018). This assignment
will attempt to discuss the impact of different care interventions for the preterm neonates and
how it can fortify their neurodevelopmental progress along with protecting and nurturing it.

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NEURODEVELOPMENT OF PRETERM NEONATE
Neurodevelopment of preterm neonate:
According to the recent statistics it has to be mentioned that among 10 babies born
every day one is delivered premature, which indicates that there is around 15 million preterm
babies taking birth all across the world. As mentioned by the Boyle et al. (2015), the
advancement in the neonate healthcare services and the enhance accessibility to life saving
commodities has resulted into higher survival rate of the preterm neonates. However, it has
to be acknowledged in this context that developmental procedure of the babies that are
delivered before the gestational period is complete it is abruptly discontinued which can lead
to several developmental incompetence leading to a prematurely develop brain, lungs,
cardiovascular system and many other organ system of the body. Exploring this issue further,
relationship between the gestational age and the birth weight is inversely proportional, which
indicates at the possibility of several developmental anomalies, especially for
neurodevelopment.
There is mounting evidence that suggest that extremely preterm and extremely
preterm neonates when into school age and early adulthood are reported to show higher rates
of motor, cognitive or behavioural impairments when compared to infants born at standard
term (Wang & Jiang, 2018). Most common developmental disorder that has been associated
with preterm babies include cerebral palsy (CP), cognitive dysfunction, blindness and
impaired vision, hearing loss and disorders of psychological development, behaviour and
emotion, all of which are directly or indirectly associated with restricted on incomplete
neurological development. Hence it is crucial for the care services for the preterm neonate to
focus entirely on facilitating and accelerating the neurological development process for the

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NEURODEVELOPMENT OF PRETERM NEONATE
neonate along with focusing on the other developmental aspects (Kwon, Vasung, Ment &
Huppi, 2014).
Care interventions:
As discussed by Baud et al. (2017), that care interventions that has focused on the
development of the preterm neonates have been found to focus more on the physical
developmental disorders with adequate clinical manifestations rather than focusing on the
neurological development which can manifest later as the baby continues to grow. There is
very little to limited knowledge among the neonatal healthcare staff regarding the need for
the neurological development oriented so that adequate care interventions can be provided to
the preterm neonates to avoid the risk of any possible neurological disorders. There is need
for effective and efficient strategies that can be implemented in the care practices that focus
entirely on the neurological development of the preterm neonates.
The first care intervention strategy that can be provided to the preterm neonates is
focused on improving the diet and growth management of the preterm neonate. The rationale
for this care intervention approach is based on the article by the Rose et al. (2014), that states
that the proper after-birth weight improvement and BMI increase had been reported to be
extremely beneficial for improving and enhancing the neurological development of the
preterm neonates. Research has shown the fact that the preterm neonates are generally born
with comparatively lesser cortical grey matter than the normal babies. This is one of the
fundamental contributing factors leading to flawed brain development and associated clinical
manifestations on the behavioural characteristics. Although there is also considerable
argument that rejects the ideation of proper weight and BMI increase to directly influence
brain development in the preterm neonates.