Congratulations Dear Parents!
You have just experienced a wonderful miracle - the birth of your baby. Your miracle, however, arrived earlier than you expected - maybe weeks or even months earlier. Your baby is now being cared for in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). You probably are overwhelmed right now and have a lot of questions regarding your baby's health. For instance, when he/she will get to go home, and how you are going to cope with this unexpected situation.
This book has been prepared to answer some of the common concerns which most parents have. Although it is not easy, but try your best not to worry; we know you may feel completely helpless. But you can rest assured knowing that while your baby is in Cloudnine, he/she will get the best medical care available. Cloudnine has one of the highest survival rates of preterm babies in the world so far, due to its international standard of care. Do not hesitate to discuss any question you may have with the NICU staff. Let them know if you are scared or confused. Helping parents like you deal with their fears, feelings, and frustrations is an important part of their job.
This book has been planned for quite some time, the global action report on preterm birth 'Born Too Soon' provided us the first global estimate of preterm birth. The report shows the extent to which preterm birth is on the rise, and that it is now the second leading cause of death globally for children under five, after pneumonia. This hastened our efforts and resulted in the first edition, but now we are preparing this second edition after 7 years of various feedbacks from parents like you. Simultaneously, taking a cue from 'Born Too Soon', the Indian Foundation for Premature Babies (IFPB) have prepared a sequel on Preterm Birth in India. Neonatologists from across the country, including experts from Cloudnine, have contributed data and content on various issues related to India's preterm births in the report 'Delivered Too Soon - India Story' which was released recently.
I heartily thank Shri. U. T. Khader, Honourable Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Government of Karnataka, under whose august aegis the first edition of "Arrived Too Soon" was launched. I also thank Dr. Arvind Shenoi, my colleague, for giving constructive suggestions and writing the preface for this first edition; Dr. Chitra Shankar for writing the section on follow up of preterm babies and all my other neonatal colleagues Dr. Nandini Nagar & Dr. S. V. Girish- for providing valuable insights.
We will constantly strive to improve our book, as with our services, so if you feel there is something we could have written better or could have added, or even deleted, please let us know. We will include your suggestions and comments in the next edition to make things better!
Kumar, Kishore: - "Dr. R. Kishore Kumar founded Cloudnine in 2007 to further his vision for bringing high quality maternal & neonatal healthcare to India, on par with international standards. He conceived the idea of a facility dedicated to providing exclusive and comprehensive services in maternal and child care. As the Founding Chairman, and senior neonatologist, he has been instrumental in securing the pinnacle of success achieved by Cloudnine today. Dr. Kishore is an internationally acclaimed neonatologist who has worked in four continents over the course of his career including North America, UK, Asia and spent 12 years in Australia. He completed his MBBS from Gulbarga University and his DCH from Mysore University and London. Amongst his many qualifications, he also has an MD with a gold medal from Mysore University, MRCP (Paed) & FRCPCH from UK as well as MRCPI (Paed) and FRCPI from Ireland. He has also completed his Fellowship in the Advanced Neonatal ICU with an FRACP from Melbourne, Australia. At the time of his qualification, he was one of the youngest and highest qualified neonatologists in the world. To his credit, he has worked only in teaching hospitals around the world. Among his many awards and accreditations is the honour of being felicitated by former US President Bill Clinton for his exceptional achievements in the field of neonatology. He recently completed his executive MBA (MHCD) in health care delivery from Harvard Business School (HBS). Dr. Kishore Kumar saw lot of deaths during his training in India, but hardly saw any deaths during his 16 year tenure in the developed world and also saw what the intact survival of a premature baby means to the parents. Hence he had this dream of providing similar care in India and is committed to his passion for scaling new heights in neonatology as he pioneers this modern concept of maternal healthcare in India with Cloudnine. To this effect, he has achieved more than what he dreamt for the Cloudnine group can boast of over 1000 deliveries a month, having nearly ZERO percent maternal mortality and 99.2% survival for babies including premature babies as premature as 24 weeks. These achievements led to several awards such as the Economic Times, Leaders of Tomorrow Award received in Dec 2012 from Mr. Anand Sharma, Commerce minister of India. Cloudnine also received the BEST Maternal and Neonatal Hospital Award for three consecutive years 2011, 2012 and 2013. He received Australian Service Excellence Award - the ONLY health care facility in India to have received this award. He was also bestowed with Pride of Karnataka award recently. He has also established teaching and research programmes of international repute and has published over 80 papers in national and international conferences in the last few years. These academic contributions led to Indian Academy of Pediatrics gold medal in 2012, FNNF by National Neonatology Forum of India and Fellow of Indian Academy of Pediatrics (FIAP) in 2018."
