My project aims to better understand the factors which influence gastrointestinal motility in the very preterm neonate. Preterm neonates face many challenges early in life due to the under developmental of their vital organs and bodily systems. Premature infants have slowed gastrointestinal motility compared to term infants, which hinders nutritional and growth outcomes. Delays in passage of the first stool, meconium, can have negative health consequences including reflux, constipation, infection, and even serious gastrointestinal illness such as necrotizing enterocolitis. Therefore, it is important to know all the factors which influence gastrointestinal motility to establish normal stooling behaviour and improve health outcomes in preterm infants. This way, physicians can make appropriate feeding regimen and treatment choices to improve gastrointestinal motility.
My project is a retrospective chart review that will be examining a cohort of preterm neonates, less than 32 weeks gestation, born at Cork University Maternity Hospital from 2017 to 2021. This cohort is estimated to contain 200-300 babies. I will be recording treatments received, feeding regimens and stooling patterns through the first 3 weeks of life. This project may add new findings to the existing literature on factors affecting gastrointestinal motility in preterm infants. These new findings may serve as a foundation for future research to ultimately improve the early care of preterm neonates in terms of gastrointestinal motility. Associations made between feeding regimens/treatments received and stooling behaviour in the early weeks of life can aid CUMH to identify patterns and optimize care of preterm neonates.
