Once the meconium, goes to the lungs, it can damage the newborn baby’s lungs and they go into a condition called as meconium aspiration syndrome, which is manifested as a fast breathing, that is they will be breathing very hard. They will be respiratory distress, means there will be retraction in the chest and the other common symptoms the baby can face is the same meconium can go into the stomach and they develop something called as meconium gastritis, and if we feed the baby, because of the gastritis, they start vomiting. These are the two main kind of symptoms that can happen because of meconium aspiration and the amount of aspiration is significant, it can be fatal also. We have to be very cautious and have to monitor these babies. Always admit in NICU and requires proper investigations in the form of chest x-rays and certain blood tests and if required ventilation therapy also because the severe variety of meconium aspiration can be fatal also. So management of preterm babies requires a proper level 3 NICU’s . So we always chose a particular hospital with facility of level 3 NICU with proper 24*7 availability of trained doctors and trained sisters.
