Nurses at the Perinatal Medical Center at the CQHCWC, move China's first Giraffe Shuttle intra-hospital transport equipment for newborns on Jan 9. [Photo/CQHCWC]

The installation and commissioning of China's first Giraffe Shuttle intra-hospital transport equipment for newborns was completed at Chongqing Health Center for Women and Children (CQHCWC) in Southwest China's Chongqing on Jan 9, according to CQHCWC officials.

The Giraffe Shuttle is an intra-hospital transport and rescue system for newborns that integrates life support equipment such as ventilators, monitors, infusion devices, etc. It can connect to the warmer machine that replaces the mother's uterus for the survival of premature infants after birth -- and can shuttle between the hospital delivery room and the operating room and the neonatal intensive care unit, also known as the intra-hospital mobile NICU.

Hospital officials said it also reduces the risk of premature babies being moved again after entering the NICU.

With deliveries of premature babies exceeding 10 percent of the world's births, the World Health Organization declared in 2012 that the era of premature babies had arrived. Survival rates and the quality of life of premature infants are critical issues to be addressed in the health of premature infants.

Since 2018, the CQHCWC started to cooperate with Professor Gerhard Jorch, a German expert in perinatal medicine, to strengthen the construction of its Perinatal Medical Center.

While improving its treatment capacity and management system, the hospital has introduced international advanced rescue and transport equipment.

In 2019, the survival rate of very low birth weight infants reached 97.64 percent in the CQHCWC and 77.5 percent in extremely low birth weight infants.