(Oct 15) SINGAPORE has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world - and not by accident.

It is the tireless effort of a team of more than 20 paediatricians in neonatal care that has given premature babies born here the best chance of surviving and doing so with little impairment.

About 5 to 7 per cent of babies are born premature, after less than 37 weeks of gestation.

Associate Professor Ho Lai Yun, a senior consultant in neonatology at both Singapore General Hospital and KK Women's and Children's Hospital, said premature babies are very fragile, especially those who weigh 1kg or less.

They are so small, a little change in them can have a big impact. If a blood vessel opens up, their lungs get flooded. They may get too much or too little oxygen and end up with cerebral palsy, mental retardation or even die.

'We have to... anticipate problems and deal with them before they occur,' Prof Ho said. This requires expertise not every paediatrician has.

As a result of such expertise, the number of children suffering from cerebral palsy has plunged. Most premature babies here do well, with some making it to gifted programmes in school, he added.

Infant mortality - infants who do not survive beyond one year - has gone down dramatically, from 82.2 per 1,000 babies in the 1950s to 2.3 today.