The Issue of Preterm Birth
Imagine you are in labor, the moment you’ve been waiting for for nine months. An urgency rises to get the baby out, as it does with every childbirth. But this is a different type of urgency. Your baby will be born before its term has ended, meaning a preterm birth. He or she may be born with various complications, such as problems with hearing or sight (Centers for Disease Control). 1 in 9 babies are influenced by preterm birth (“Lung Proteins”, 2015), but scientists haven’t made this problem a priority until about two years ago, when two medical organizations came together to find a way to predict preterm birth (Vence, 2013). Since then, scientists and researchers are taking the needed steps toward the demolition of preterm childbirth.
Firstly, we need to understand that our scientific view of preterm birth has changed over the years. According to popular knowledge, preterm birth is when a mother delivers too soon, but Roberto Romero, M.D., D.Med.Sci., chief of the Perinatology Research Branch of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development located at Wayne State University and the Detroit Medical Center, along with multiple scientists are researchers have come to the conclusion that preterm birth is not one problem, but a soup of multiple problems that need to be addressed (“Advances”, 2014) In fact, it can be drawn that preterm birth is not an event, but a disorder with many factors. One example is
Imagine awaiting one's little miracle, and having to experience the complications of a premature birth. “A staggering 15 million babies are born premature each year around the world” (Mayo Clinic Staff). Of that number, 1 million of
To understand the development of Victoria’s condition, the underlying physiology and progressive pathophysiology must be examined. Victoria is a 29 year old woman of Indian descent, her booking body mass index (BMI) was 22.5 and her expected due date was 22/09/2015. Victoria gave birth to a live male infant named Noah, on the 24/08/2015 at 35 weeks and six days gestation, classing him as a late preterm. He weighed 2740gms and plotted on the 82nd
Being born preterm is a risk factor that put infants to higher risks of chronic diseases and mortality later in life. They have different causes and risks of mortality, morbidity, impaired growth, and non-communicable diseases. Preterm infants are becoming vulnerable to complications due to impaired respiration, difficulty in feeding, poor body temperature regulation and high risk of infection. Thus, being born preterm predisposes infants to higher risks of chronic diseases and mortality later in life. Babies born preterm do not meet the same growth targets as babies born at term, continue to remain below the standard growth curve and demonstrate reduced ability for catch-up
Preterm babies are those that are born before 37 months of pregnancy are over. It is the under developmental state of these babies that puts them at a higher risk of developing complications after birth. Good examples of these are complications of the respiratory system that affect the ability of the neonate to inhale and exhale air. Lung complications are common respiratory problems in preterm infants. In most cases, the lung matures after 36 weeks, but this differs in fetuses as they exhibit variability in their rates of development. Respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) is a common lung problem in preterm babies, and it occurs as a result of the inability of the lungs to synthesize enough surfactant. The surfactant is important in the lungs
Jensen, Wendy M. White, and Charles C. Coddington, there are about 10% to 15% of all deliveries in the United States occur before the 39 week gestation period with absolutely no medical indication for early induction. Even though the risk of maternal and neonatal complications are more likely to increase than the risk in post-term deliveries (1312). Robert Goldenberg presented another generalization by mentioning that pre-term labors are more prone to resulting in an elective induction when reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization are used, which will result in an overall increase of pre-term birth in multiple gestations (75-84). Although there are many risks when choosing elective induction in pre-term labor, it may save the mother or child’s life. Pre-term labor has recently been used as a way to “assess the value of biomarkers for the prediction of pre-term birth”(Goldenberg 81). Gerson D. Hernandez noted that a rise of all labor inductions from 1990 to 2004 put the OB/GYN community around the world on a high alert because the rate was a 12.6% increase which does not even include the past 10 years (787-94). Despite the problems many women and children face when giving birth or being born pre-term, there are an equal percentage of risks that develop during all pregnancies. For example, the general morbidity rate was the same percentage for all periods of gestation including full-term and post-term pregnancies (Hernandez 787-94).
Preterm Birth in the United States: The Impact of Stressful Life Events Prior to Conception and Maternal Age
When it comes time in a woman’s life for her to give birth to her child, it can be considered one of the most exhilarating, yet terrifying times of her life. Simply just knowing the different birthing methods, however, can help to ease the terrifying part of giving birth and allow the woman to enjoy this time in her life. Thankfully, with all the advancements in technology and medicine that we have today, women have more options to choose from which are safer for both them, and their baby. The two main birthing methods are vaginal birth and caesarean birth. However, from these two methods come options for women to choose from, such as: natural birth, water birth, epidural anesthesia, and few others. With all these choices for women to
Studies have proven that ⅔ of premature deaths have no biological cause. The deaths have incresed researchers said the results reccommend the need for new inventive health care to help reduce premuture deaths.Now people are using a fundaisor known as March Of Dimes whcih is a nonprohfpit organazatin that conducts research reguarding pregnany and baby health and it raises money for those aereas,like preeterm birth.For this research authors studied 4.1 million pregnancies,contaianing 1.3 million from California,2.8 million from New Zealand, and Czeach Republic.Authors confirmed that the strongest risk factor of having a preeterm birth is if you have already had a preeterm birth,but they also found that
After reading about premature baby girl McKenna and the complications that ensued, I was interested in learning more about premature births. Premature babies, or "preemies" are babies delivered before 37 weeks of pregnancy. In 2015, around 15 million babies were born prematurely. This shows that about 1/10 babies are born prematurely. Since then, the number of babies born prematurely continues to rise. The earlier the delivery, the increase of medical complications is expected. The range of preterm births can be defined by being "extremely preterm" which is less than 28 weeks of pregnancy, a "very preterm" baby that was delivered between 28 and 32 weeks, and
I have chosen to review the article titled ‘Very preterm birth not associated with mood, anxiety disorders’
Prematurity remains the leading cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality, accounting for 60 to 80% of deaths in live born infants without congenital malformations. Up to 10% of surviving newborns at very low birth weight (<25mm at 24 weeks was associated with an increased risk of preterm birth . (Goldenberg et al, 1996).
Centers for disease control and prevention 2013 indicates that approximately 500 thousand premature infants are born each year (CDC, 2014). Premature births occur in 12% of births and the majority of these infants require admission to NICU (Hamilton, Martin, Osterman, & Curtin, 2014), with seven percent hospitalized for six or more days (Infant Morbidity, 2013). These statistics highlight the continual increase of 31 percent since the early 1980’s for premature births worldwide (Blencowe et al., 2012; Dusing, Van Drew, & Brown, 2012). While all newborns are vulnerable, premature infants are at increased risks for long term and complex health problems, and continue to be the number one cause of newborn death (Beck et al., 2010; Newnam & Parrott, 2013). Additionally, the Institute of Medicine estimates the cost of premature births result in over 26 billion per year (Behrman & Butler, 2006).
Preterm birth is defined as the birth of a baby before 37 weeks gestation age. The stages of preterm can be subdivided into different stages. Very Preterm is 20-32 weeks, Moderately Preterm is 33-36 weeks, Early Term is 37-38 weeks gestation stage. According to the statistics gathered by the World Health Organisation (WHO) (2015) in 2012, there are more than 1 in 10 babies born preterm every year with an estimated 15 million born preterm every year. There are a wide variety of factors that cause preterm birth, examples including: a multiple pregnancy, substance abuse and smoking, assisted reproduction and a low socio-economic status. Studies have also shown that certain ethnicities are at a higher risk of delivering preterm than others. According to an external study included Nosarti et al (2010) in the USA, 19% of black non-Hispanic pregnancies
The topic addressed in the webinar is about how public health strategies can help to prevent preterm birth in the Unites States of America. The webinar addresses the different ethnicities that have a major prevalence of preterm babies. Also, addresses the preterm delivery risk factors in our society to be: socioeconomic status, behavioral, clinical, and biological. As well as, the opportunities to prevent preterm birth by improving data of surveillance of preterm birth, to research etiology and act to prevent preterm births, improve a quality of care, and to strength partnerships from science and investigation to actual practice. In comparing statistics from 1990’s to 2014 preterm birth rates decreased by a significant amount because the FDA approved artificial surfactant. In the other hand, by comparing preterm birth by race Black is having a slow decrease of
In maternal-child health in the United States and feasibly throughout the world, preterm birth is currently the most important problem and is the most significant challenge to modern obstetrics. According to the World Health Organization, a preterm birth is defined as birth before 37 completed weeks of gestation. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2014) estimated that 1 in 9 infants born in United States are preterm babies. Preterm-related reasons of death together accounted for 35% of all infant deaths in 2010, more than any other single cause. Preterm birth is also a foremost cause of long-term neurological disabilities in children. Preterm birth costs the U.S. health care system more than $26 billion in 2005 (CDC, 2014). Preterm birth is a condition triggered by several etiologies, one of which is a drop in progesterone action, which makes cervical ripening. A sonographic short cervix (identified in the midtrimester) is a dominant forecaster of spontaneous preterm