Breathing Pattern in Healthy Preterm Babies

This observational study was conducted on 200 healthy preterm babies delivered in the department of Obstetrics and handled by the Neonatology section of Pediatrics department with the aim to study the breathing pattern in healthy preterm babies and to compare pattern of breathing with gestational age, birth weight and other relevant parameters. The breathing pattern was observed in all preterm babies starting from day 3 of life till the hospital stay. It was found that with increasing gestational age the incidence of Normal breathing increased while the incidence of Periodic breathing and Apnea decreased(table 1). Also a highly significant correlation between birth weight and breathing pattern was found with increase in incidence of periodic breathing and incidence of apneas in low birth weight babies (table 2). The incidence of periodic breathing in healthy Preterm infants was found to be 42% and rest 58% had normal breathing during the period of observation. The incidence of apnea of prematurity in preterm babies was found to be 5.5% (table 3).