A team of maternity and paediatric care experts at Hong Kong’s Queen Mary Hospital (QMH) has said it successfully raised the survival rate of premature infants by devising treatment and emergency care strategies with parents ahead of delivery. Premature babies born at 23 weeks of pregnancy in QMH between 2021 and 2023 had a 50 per cent chance of survival, Mabel Wong, consultant of the Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, said during a press conference on Tuesday. The survival rate was significantly higher than that recorded among 23-week-old babies delivered in QMH between 2005 and 2014, when it was 27 per cent, Wong said, citing a study by her department released in 2017.
“A lot of factors affect the survival rate. From the proactive preparation by the obstetrics and gynaecology department to after the baby was born, every step is important,” the doctor said in Cantonese. Formed in June 2021, the multidisciplinary team has served more than 20 parents of “periviable gestations,” referring to infants born between 23 weeks and 25 weeks of pregnancy.
A full-term pregnancy is typically around 40 weeks. Mimi Seto, associate consultant at QMH’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, estimated that about 7 per cent of deliveries handled by public hospitals were at 37 weeks of gestation or before. Wong told the press on Tuesday that international research showed that babies born at 23 weeks only had around 40 per cent chance of survival.
Those born at 24 .