A big study across every special-care baby unit in one Canadian province found that when parents were trained and supported to become active members of their premature baby's care team, their babies went home about two and a half days earlier — and were no more likely to be readmitted to hospital…

When a baby is severely deprived of oxygen around the time of birth, a condition doctors call perinatal asphyxia, the kidneys are among the first organs to suffer, and many of these newborns develop kidney injury in their first days of life. A 2024 clinical trial from Eastern India tested whether a…

A small study from Iran asked whether giving mothers melatonin — the natural hormone many people know as a sleep aid — in the two weeks before a planned early (premature) delivery could help their babies breathe more easily after birth. Every mother in the study also received the standard steroid…

When a baby is about to be born far too early, doctors give the mother a steroid injection to help the baby's lungs and other organs get ready for life outside the womb. A large US study of 1,806 extremely premature babies found that even a single dose given just a few hours before birth was linked…

Two large research reviews published in 2026 compared the two main treatments for retinopathy of prematurity, an eye condition affecting babies born very early. Injections of anti-VEGF medicine left children with much less short-sightedness than laser treatment, but the disease was more likely to…

If your baby is in a neonatal intensive care unit and needs help with breathing, one of the most constant tasks at the bedside is adjusting how much oxygen your baby receives. A review of sixteen randomised studies involving 431 premature babies found that when a computer made those adjustments…

A large new analysis has found that azithromycin, a widely used antibiotic, does not prevent the chronic lung disease that affects many babies born very early. Researchers combined the results of six carefully conducted studies involving 1,360 premature infants and found that babies given…

A new study of 146 very premature babies in China tested whether adding bovine colostrum — the rich "first milk" a cow makes just after giving birth — to their mothers' milk would help them digest feeds more easily than a standard cow's-milk supplement. The answer was no: babies given colostrum had…

Babies born with congenital diaphragmatic hernia — a hole in the muscle that separates the chest from the abdomen — survive far more often than they once did, but many go on to have developmental difficulties. A new study of 83 full-term babies in China found that two bedside monitors, one…

Researchers in Padova, Italy, gently placed a small glucose sensor on the leg of 60 very premature babies, tracked their blood sugar around the clock for the first days of life, and then measured how those children were developing at one year of age. They found that the premature babies were, on…

Premature babies often need extra oxygen, but getting the amount exactly right is surprisingly hard, and both too little and too much can cause harm. A 2025 review by researchers in London gathered sixteen studies testing whether a computerised system that adjusts a baby's oxygen automatically does…

When a baby is born many weeks too early, the first few minutes of life are among the most important they will ever have. A new study followed a large group of premature babies to the age of two to answer a hopeful question: if doctors add a small sensor that watches the baby's brain-oxygen level…