Most premature babies are considered “late-term” preemies, arriving between 34 weeks and 37 weeks. Judith Krammer, a maternal and fetal medicine specialist in Fort Myers, said doctors and parents are more comfortable delivering babies early to protect the mother’s health because they know neonatal survival rates have improved vastly. But others say the C-sections and labor inductions are driven by malpractice fears, a growing practice of delivering a bigger baby via C-section or inducing labor early, better reimbursement rates by insurance companies, a refusal to allow C-section mothers to deliver subsequent children vaginally, and, in some cases, for the convenience of mother and practitioner. Between the prevalence of C-sections and the lifesaving advancements in neonatology, some public health officials see a growing nonchalance about delivering early. It’s where state health officials have teamed with the March of Dimes, Johnson & Johnson Pediatric Institute and hospitals in an effort to curb prematurity. Babies born at 37 weeks are twice as likely to need a ventilator as those born between 38 weeks and 40 weeks; babies born at 34 weeks are 20 times more likely to need respiratory help. read more
Technorati Tags: health, weeks, babies, early, born, growing, pregnancy news
This entry was posted
on Sunday, November 25th, 2007 at 8:59 am and is filed under Pregnancy News.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
Loading ...
