Bliss (charity) considering allowing due date, rather than birth date, to be used when making admissions decisions. Bliss works in partnership to promote and support best practice in neonatal care, and is currently involved in over £10.1 million of research which is responsible for significant improvements in the care and treatment of babies born premature or sick. Here are some of the research projects Bliss are involved with. Since 1995 Bliss has supported the EPICure study, the longest running study into prematurity in the world, which tracks the chances of survival and later health status of babies born at less than 26
Neonatal intensive care unit infant mortality. The development of pulmonary surfactant, which facilitates the oxygenation and ventilation of underdeveloped lungs, has been the most important development in neonatology to date. By the 1970s, NICUs were an established part of hospitals in the developed world. In Britain, some early units ran community programmes, sending experienced nurses to help care for premature babies at home. But increasingly technological monitoring and therapy meant special care for babies became hospital-based. By the 1980s, over 90% of births took place in hospital. The emergency dash from home to the NICU with baby in a transport incubator had become a