EAPS Welcome Session

From 17 – 20 October 2024, leading research from around the world in the field of paediatrics united at the 10th Congress of the European Academy of Paediatric Societies (EAPS) in Vienna. This conference was a vibrant hub of knowledge, collaboration, and innovation. From insightful discussions and hands-on workshops to cutting-edge research presentations, EAPS 2024 has been an inspiring experience for EFCNI.

It was our great pleasure to meet our partners on-site to discuss about future projects and milestones to thrive preterm and newborn care in the future. Chiesi, our partner in the Neopedia project, which will be officially launched in spring 2025 in English French, Italian, German, and Spanish – with more languages to come – visited us at our booth and we were more than excited to jointly increase the anticipation of the project with our poster developed for the congress, which attracted a lot of attention and interest at our booth. Every family deserves to be informed, supported and empowered to give their baby the best start in life. Finding reliable sources in your language in the vast sea of information out there can be a challenge, especially in the NICU. That’s why we’re creating Neopedia – a global platform for families of preterm or sick babies developed alongside parent organisations worldwide, offering multilingual support, expert-backed information, advice from the parent community and links to national support and resources.

Together with our partner Prolacta, a supporter of the topic “Fortification in preterm and sick infants”, we were raising awareness on the power of breastmilk fortification for the most vulnerable infants. For preterm, sick, or low-birth-weight babies, extra proteins, fats, carbs, and calories are essential for proper growth and development. Fortifying breast milk is a key way to meet these needs, and our factsheet, which was distributed at our congress booth, explains how and when to fortify.

Besides, we met our partner Baxter, a supporter of the topic “Parenteral nutrition” at our booth to highlighted the importance of PN for babies who are born very preterm or have certain illnesses and therefore often cannot be fed by mouth or by a feeding tube. Our factsheets, available for healthcare professionals and parents, explain the scientific background behind PN, guide through the process from indication to administration and show how meaningful communication on this topic can be initiated between healthcare professionals and parents of affected infants.

On Saturday, 19 October, EFCNI’s Silke Mader and Prof Luc Zimmermann had the honour to chair the comprehensive scientific session “Care of the preterm infant”, in which the latest practices and research findings in this field were presented.

Dr Agnes Linner from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden opened the session with her very insightful presentation on “Skin-to-skin contact for very preterm infants – an opportunity to re-visit the golden hours concept”. In her talk, Dr Linner highlighted the undeniable health advantages of skin-to-skin contact. The Immediate Parent-Infant Skin-To-Skin Study (IPISTOSS) examined the effects of skin-to-skin contact with a parent immediately after birth and continued throughout the first 6 postnatal hours. Study findings indicate that infants born at 28 gestational weeks or later should be cared for in uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact with their mother for at least the first two hours. Skin-to-skin contact not only ensures stable thermal control, but it also improves mother-infant interaction. Take-home message: The Neonatal Golden Hour is an early, sensitive window of opportunity that must be used to guarantee the best possible care.

Dr Lukas Mileder from the Medical University of Graz, Austria, continued this highly interesting session with a thrilling talk on “Normothermia in preterm neonates after birth – is it feasible with delayed cord clamping?” Abnormal temperature in preterm infants is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Infants born preterm are at risk of abnormal temperature immediately after birth in the delivery room. Current guidelines recommend using a combination of interventions in the delivery room to prevent heat loss, and one of these measures in delayed cord clamping (DCC). In his presentation, Dr Mileder presented a recently published randomised controlled trial (RCT) which demonstrated that clamping the umbilical cord at least 60s after birth reduced the risk of death or major disability at 2 years of age by 17% among very preterm infants. Key takeaway: Normothermia is feasible with DCC. However, there is also a risk of hypothermia with DCC, especially in preterm neonates below 32 weeks of gestation. Therefore, prospective studies comparing different measures of thermal care during DCC are required.

On Sunday, 20 October, the last congress day, Prof Luc Zimmermann, EFCNI’s former senior medical director, participated in the EAPS poster discussion session with a presentation on “Setting priorities for the implementation of newborn health standards: Analysis of different perspectives”. The care for preterm infants varies greatly between European countries. To address these differences, European reference standards were developed through interdisciplinary collaboration. However, their current implementation status remains unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the perspectives of healthcare professionals (HCPs) and parent representatives regarding the current state of eleven core topics in preterm care with a particular focus on areas where improvements are most urgently needed. This analysis revealed insights from 128 HCPs and 44 parents from 24 countries: Parents highlighted NICU design and follow-up care as urgent areas for improvement, while HCPs emphasised Infant- and family-centred developmental care (IFCDC). Barriers to the implementation included the lack of resources and old hospitals, while facilitating factors comprised interdisciplinary collaboration, availability of translations and training opportunities. Take home message: The perceived state of newborn health with respect to the European Standards of Care for Newborn Health (ESCNH) varied significantly and although perspectives of parents and HCPs were not always identical, many topics are relevant to both sides. Together, we need to strengthen future collaborations to pave the way to improve neglected topics, such as IFCDC.

We would like to thank everyone involved for the fantastic programme on-site at the EAPS congress in Vienna. We are confident that the connections made, and the knowledge shared at this congress, will continue to make a positive impact on paediatric healthcare worldwide. We gained exciting research insights into paediatrics and learned how new best practices in this field can help today’s children become tomorrow’s healthy adults. We are already looking forward to the next congress!