Gastroschisis and low birth weight

[cheeselover71]

Hi,
I am a Nanny in need of some positive feedback I can give my daughter. She is 31 weeks pregnant with a little girl who has gastroschisis, but is also very small ( currently approx 2.2lbs). As she is not growing well she is being delivered early, in the next week. Has anyone in a similar situation got a happy ending to share? We'd be very grateful.

bumping for you

sorry no personal experience. I just found the below on wikipedia though, it seems quite positive:

Current advances in surgical techniques and intensive care management for neonates have increased the survival rate to 90%, in adequate settings. The possibility of prenatal diagnosis either through echosonogram or any other method available allows the mother to be referred to an adequate center where a caesarean section or induced natural birth can be performed before term (as natural birth is recommended and just as safe as with a normal baby), preferably within 2 weeks of term, and allow the immediate surgery to be performed on the newborn.

The general procedure for gastroschisis is to simply tuck the protruding organs back into the opening and apply a belly band pressure until the wound heals itself. New advances have been pioneered in repairing the protruding bowel by placing a protective "silo" around the intestine outside the abdomen, then slowly pressuring the herniated intestine into the abdominal cavity. This new procedure allows for the bowel to return to its intended shape and location without further traumatizing the infant's viscera with undue internal pressure. The main cause for lengthy recovery periods in patients is the time taken for the infants' bowel function to return to normal.

The morbidity is closely related to the presence of other malformations and complications of the wound or the intestine. Patients frequently require more than one surgery.

Link is here

My friend's little boy had gastroschisis and is now a bouncing gorgeous toddler.

I'm a NICU nurse and have looked after lots of babies with Gastroschisis and many others with IUGR (small for dates babies). In general, GS babies do really well as the surgeons that look after these special wee ones are amazing! Plus, though it is rare nationally, specialist units see an awful lot of babies with GS so they are very skilled in looking after them. Your grandaughters small-ness may present some problems but NICU teams are very skilled at helping small babies to grow. She?ll be in safe hands! Whereabouts in the country is your daughter based?

The best place to look for support would be the discussion boards on this forum here:
www.geeps.co.uk/

I hope all goes well! Do post an update if you get a chance! x

Hi, Thanks so much for your reassurance. She'll be at St Michael's in Bristol. They seem fabulous there but the consultant has been concerned and is seeing her three times a week. I will post updates - thanks so much. You NICU nurses are amazing people.

Thankyou!

Hi, Thanks for that. There seems to be plenty of info available on gastroschisis but not combined with such low birthweights. It was really kind of you to send me the link, much appreciated.

Thanks, it's all very reassuring.

Most babies with gastroschisis are small for dates, though obviously 2lb2 at 31 weeks is very small- that is an estimation though so baby could be bigger. They often come prematurely too so a low birthweight, premature baby with gastroschisis is not something that the staff at St Michael's won't have come across before and they will be equipped to deal with that. The Bristol Children's Hopsital is great too so I'm sure baby will be very well looked after! She will be in an incubator for a long while and will probably need a ventilator to help her breath at some point in her stay. She will have a special "line" but in so she can have extra nutrition called "TPN"- that will help her to grow big and strong!

All the best x