Although most of these so-called “late pre-term” infants are healthy, a significant minority — as many as 17 percent to 34 percent, according to a recent report — have breathing problems, jaundice, feeding difficulties, low blood sugar, unstable body temperatures and other medical issues. Experts aren’t sure why their numbers are increasing, but they suspect that at least some physicians may be delivering babies early without solid medical justification, thinking the children won’t be in danger. It found that infants born at 34- to 36-weeks are six times more likely to die in the first week of life and three times more likely to die in their first year than babies born full term. Of those born at 34 weeks, for instance, as many as three-quarters can find their way to neonatal intensive care, where intravenous tubes provide nutrition and breathing tubes keep oxygen flowing, said Dr. Sarah Kilpatrick, head of the division of maternal fetal medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center, said she believes there are doctors who will deliver women as much as a month early for “relatively minor reasons” such as a slight increase in the mother’s blood pressure. This time, physicians at the University of Illinois Medical Center scheduled a C-section six weeks early after struggling unsuccessfully to control Nalywajko’s soaring blood pressure. read more

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