Probe into baby deaths

An inquiry has been launched into the hospital’s premature babies’ ward after two newborns died from an infection contracted from their mother during birth.

The internal inquiry will examine how the Neonatal Paediatric Intensive Care Unit is run and what caused the death of the babies, who formed part of a set of triplets, at the beginning of January, a spokesman for the Health Ministry said.

The NPICU is currently overcrowded due to the increasing number of multiple births resulting from in vitro fertilisation. Over the past few weeks five women have given birth to four sets of triplets and a pair of twins.

When contacted, NPICU head Paul Soler said he had been directed not to answer any media replies but forward them to the spokesman at the Health Ministry.

The ministry spokesman said the mother was the first to suffer from the infection which she then passed on to the babies while giving birth. It is not clear whether the mother contracted the infection from hospital.

The spokesman said no further comments could be made since the inquiry was ongoing, though she added it would soon be concluded.

The issue came to light yesterday when members of the Parliamentary Committee on Assisted Procreation noted that Mater Dei’s NPICU was overcrowded.

As a result of the lack of regulation on assisted procreation, there are currently 25 babies at NPICU, which has a bed capacity of 18.

Nationalist MP and doctor Jean Pierre Farrugia, who chaired the parliamentary committee, claimed the outbreak of infections was caused by overcrowding.

Two babies had died as a result of an infection that was contracted by another four babies – though these were fine, he said.

He said shortage of equipment, such as ventilators, was also a problem, and that nurses were stretched.

While acknowledging there was a problem of overcrowding due to the multiple births, the health spokes­man said action had been taken to boost resources and increase staff on the ward.

The ministry said babies were being given the best care possible and there was no cause for alarm.

Dr Farrugia and the other two committee members – Labour MP Michael Farrugia and Nationalist MP Frans Agius – yesterday held an informal meeting with concerned doctors at the NPICU.

Speaking to the media afterwards, they stressed the need to regulate IVF and introduce the option of embryo freezing – in line with recommendations made by the committee last October.

The three MPs said they wanted to stress that the birth of triplets was not rare in the case of IVF. Since December 22, four sets of triplets were born and another set was on the way. Two babies died and another suffers from cerebral palsy.

“We need to regulate IVF and give people the choice of opting for embryo freezing... This will decrease the morbidity and mortality rate of the foetus and babies,” Dr Farrugia said, while stressing that not all IVF babies ended up in the NPICU.

He said the figures showed that the anti-embryo-freezing lobby group, set up this month, had transmitted a “false message” when it said the birth of triplets was a rare occurrence.

IVF involves a costly procedure in which a woman takes hormone injections to increase her production of eggs that are then extracted and fertilised.

Dr Farrugia explained that as things stand, three or four embryos are then implanted into a woman to increase the chance of pregnancy.

Embryo freezing would allow for a couple to implant two fertilised eggs and freeze another two, for example. This would reduce the chances of multiple births which were clogging NPICU.

Dr Agius said: “We are very concerned that unless this is regulated, it will keep happening”, adding that the number of beds at NPICU had been calculated to cater for Malta’s needs in normal circumstances.

Embryos are frozen where IVF produces more embryos than needed. Because of the low success rate of IVF implantations, the frozen embryos could be used in other cycles, thus giving couples with fertility problems a better chance of having a child.

However, this has proved to be an ethical headache as thousands of unwanted frozen embryos stored abroad were eventually destroyed or used for research purposes.

Earlier this month a group of over 60 professionals, called Professionals Against Embryo Freezing, was set up as a reaction to the parliamentary committee’s recommendation to set up a national embryo freezing service.