单选题
The most critical time in the life of a human is the very beginning—the first hours after birth. Yet it has been only within the past few years that doctors have recognized that treating a newborn baby like a small child is not the best procedure. This is especially true of "high risk babies", a term applied to babies that are premature, underweight, or born with major organic defects. They need immediate, imaginative, intensive care and observation, not only for survival but also to help circumvent physical problems which may affect the infant for life. Out of this requirement has developed a new branch of medicine called neonatology, which is concerned with the first three months of life. Dozens of major hospitals throughout the United States have opened newborn intensive care units, directed by neonatologists and employing equipment and techniques devised specially for tiny patients. One of the greatest aids in these units is an "isolette"—an electronically equipped glass-enclosed incubator with portholes for sterile access to the baby. Inside the isolette, sensors placed on the infant make him look much like a miniature astronaut. The sensors automatically regulate and record the temperature, humidity, and oxygen in this "artificial womb", as well as signal change or trouble affecting its occupant. In hospitals with newborn intensive care unit, specialists are ready to use their skills as the need arises. They are alerted to pregnancies that may develop complications. For example, if a woman who is pregnant enters the hospital and is under the age of 18 or over the age of 40, is undernourished or obese, has diabetes, heart or kidney trouble, the neonatologists are advised. The neonatologist often attends the delivery of a baby with the obstetrician, and then rushes the newborn infant into his special care unit. There, within a few minutes, the baby is tested, examined thorougbly, and made ready for treatment or surgery if needed. The most common cause of infant deaths is pre-maturity. In some hospitals it is not unusual to find 8 or 9 "preemies" (premature infants) in the special care units at one time. In addition to the technical advances, the health of the infant depends on an ageless ingredient-love. Nurses are essential members of baby-caving teams. Their job is to rock, to feed, and to fondle the very small patients. Even at this early age, doctors find that lack of love has adverse physical and psychological effects. on the newborn babies. As the number of neonatologists and special care centers has increased, the survival rate for high-risk babies in the United States has risen from about 75 % a few years ago to an impressively high 90% today. Doctors think that the 90% could beincreased if the babies could be brought more quickly under the care of a neonatologist. In some hospitals, teams of doctors and nurses can respond to emergencies with portable isolettes which are carried by airplane, helicopter, or ambulance.