Babies born after weekday working hours are more prone to death

Babies born outside the normal nine-to five monday to Friday working hours have been found to be more prone to death, mainly due to lack of oxygen, according to a study conducted. The researchers observed one million births over 20 years, and thereason was found to be the unavailability of senior clinical staff after usual working hours, to detect the problem and provide apt medical assistance.

In planned caesarean, there is usually a low risk of dying due to lack of oxygen or other medical support, but it is seen that when the baby is born at odd hours, the chances of its survival are just a mere 55%.

Gordon Smith, a professor in obstetrics and gynaecology says that improving the level of clinical care for women delivered out of normal working hours might reduce the overall rates of prenatal death. Apart from infants, other patients, who were admitted in the hospitals during weekends were also found to be under higher risk of death. This, according to the professor, could be because of the variation in the immediate availability of medical attention, which is in turn due to lack of staff- especially senior staff members, during different times (read odd hours) of the day.