Nine months development in the womb is the ideal. Less than that is less than the ideal. Nowadays with so many technological advances, babies born much earlier than full term will live and remain healthy but they will often be missing a significant facet of their development. Instead of spending the full term of the pregnancy in a protective, enveloping womb, preemies emerge into the world when they are not yet prepared for the environment, which demands of them to be more independent and higher functioning.
Prematurity may come along with a range of side effects and medical complications that can influence the child’s course of development, especially throughout the early years. There are rare preemies who do not experience any medical or developmental problems and whom the early birth will “pass right by” without leaving an impression. But they are few and far between.
Caring for a newborn is all-consuming. Caring for a preemie is even more so. Therefore, small problems can so easily go unnoticed resulting in bigger problems later on as the child matures.
Always in the forefront of prophylactic therapy to avoid cognitive, motor, social challenges down the line, Ezer Mizion will be undertaking an informative workshop series to provide parents with the tools they need to help close the gap between their preemie’s development and that of his peers.
Is my child’s development within the normal range? What challenges are common in preemies? What exercises will be beneficial for various specific needs? How can I access government funding for therapy? All these ‘question marks’ will be address by qualified professionals in a twenty-session workshop. Many of the 90-minute sessions will consist of hands-on demonstrations of exercises by top people in their field. Others will be round-table style focusing on discussion and supportive exchange of information.
Ezer Mizion’s Children’s Division provides many services for children with varied issues. A special needs kindergarten and regular therapy by trained developmental aides are two of the many programs available for children. Issues in children originate from many sources, premature delivery being one of them. A significant amount of problems that are caused by premature birth can be alleviated or even eliminated by early intervention. Creating awareness in the parent population is the first step and will hopefully help to avoid all the emotional distress later in life by both parent and child as the child finds he just doesn’t fit in and cannot relate to his peers socially or accomplish the same academic tasks as easily as they do.
As always, Ezer Mizion attempt to work on two fronts in an attempt to not only repair an already existent problem but also prevent it from arising and becoming an impediment to smooth functioning in day-to-day life.
Ezer Mizion provides services to over 660,000 of Israel’s population annually in addition to its Bone Marrow Registry which saves the lives of Jewish cancer patients the world over.
