Care for premature infant

A

amihk

New member
Our baby was born at 32 weeks and has been discharged by Queen Mary at just under 35 weeks of age. The level of care provided exceeded our expectations, however there have been few opportunities to speak directly with doctors about his particular condition. We have only been hearing second-hand from nurses that everything so far is stable. They discharged him quite abruptly (we were quite surprised, as we assumed we would have a good deal of advance notice), only referring us to a community clinic for follow-up care. Should we take him to this clinic, or is it time to transition to private care? Are there any private clinics/paediatricians with a good reputation for caring for premature infants?
 
My son was born at 33 weeks at QMH & my experience sounds like yours. You should feel good that they are discharging him bc they must feel he is ready! We went with private care with Dr.Paul Leung at Premier Medical - a friend who had premature twins recommended him - and we have been very happy with him. I have also heard that Dr.Barbara Lam is the expert on preemies. My son is now 22 mths, healthy & active - hard to believe he was less than 2kgs at birth. I also have friends who have gone to the MHC clinics & that is fine too (much more reasonable in cost). Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions. Congratulations!
 
QMH would never discharge a patient unless they felt that the patient was ready to go home.

both of my kids were technically pre-mature (but only by a week & a week and a half), mine weren't kept in the hospital at all.

we have only used the MCHC when they were young and were quite happy with it.
 
Ditto to the above - it took me 4 months to get my little one (who was very healthy) out of NICU. Her situation was complicated, but there was no way that the doctors were releasing her until they were 100% sure that she would be stable at home. From the time she was 2 weeks to 4 months, apart from continual monitoring, there was nothing that they were doing in NICU that we couldn't have done at home - but they just weren't sure enough to send her home.

If you haven't been given any specific instruction, just treat your little one just like any other baby, feed him, change him, bathe him... Medically, they would absolutely never discharge a patient unless they were sure that everything was fine for them to be home. I've had friends with preemies whose health was less certain and they were given VERY specific instructions by the doctors about what to do with regard to those issues. No news is good news, congrats on your healthy baby!!
 
personally, if you think you may need to make use of the public system again with your baby, then DEFINITELY go to the clinic. if you aren't satisfied, then attend a private doc in addition to the clinic... but you want to keep the baby "on their books" so that they will have access to all medical records if the need arises.

at least, that is my take on it.
 
I second Cara's advice. If the nurses at the clinic find anything wrong they will arrange follow up with a doctor / hospital. I was asked if I needed to see a public hospital doctor for my child for a very minor problem but I was happy to continue to see my child's private pediatrician.
 
Third! Definitely worth at least going to the public system for the first 18 months to check that everything is on target, developmentally... It's easier to go to all of the check ups than it is to transfer into the public system later. After that, it's not such a big deal.
 
Thank you everyone for the reassurance! Baby is doing well at home. We took him for his checkup at the public clinic, and also brought him to see a private paediatrician who was really great and gave us a lot of advice. We will probably continue seeing this doctor... she will monitor his developmental milestones when we bring him in for future vaccinations (she recommended some in addition to what is offered in the public system).
 
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