Background: The neonatal period is defined as the first 28 days after birth for the newborn and is the most critical period of Paediatric age group. One hundred thirty million newborns are born every year, and 4 million (3%) of them pass away within the first 28 days of their lives.50% of all newborn deaths occur within the first 24 hours of life. The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is one of the highly sophisticated facilities equipped to address all types of critical cases.

Aim: To assess the morbidity pattern of the neonates who were admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care unit in a tertiary care centre in Puducherry

Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted in the Department of Paediatrics at Sri Lakshmi Narayana Medical College in Puducherry. The babies received in the labour room or the operative theatre were given an Apgar score at 1 and 5 min. All other vital parameters were recorded, and the sick babies were shifted to the NICU. All the babies were examined within 24 hours of birth and daily until discharge from the hospital and if found sick are shifted NICU

Results: A total of 320 babies admitted in NICU for a period of one year from June 2023 to may 2024 were included in the study. 58.7% had a birth weight of more than 2.5 kg, 72.2% had a gestation age of more than 37 weeks, and males contributed 62.8%. The majority are from rural areas and low socio-economic status. And 65.6% were born by vaginal delivery. Anaemia (67.5%) is the most common maternal disease, and gestational diabetes mellitus (30.9%), followed by preeclampsia or eclampsia (27.5%), is the most common obstetrical complication encountered in the study. Transient tachypnoea of newborns is the most common morbidity (71.9%) followed by perinatal asphyxia (31.6%), and small for gestational age (27.5%) was noted in the study.

Conclusion: The transient tachypnoea of the newborn, respiratory distress, prematurity, and systemic infection were the leading causes of the admission in our study. Improvement should be made in neonatal care from the grassroots level to the tertiary level to reduce neonatal morbidity and mortality.

Keywords: newborn, neonates, NICU, morbidity.

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Dr Katkuri Sandeep Reddy

Post Graduate student, Department of Pediatrics, Sri Lakshmi Narayana institute of medical sciences, Puducherry, India