Preterm Labor Pregnancy and Birth
Although 37 weeks of gestation is considered mature, a fetus can reach maturity as early as 35 weeks. This does not mean that younger or smaller babies can not survive. today, often do. neonatal intensive care, highly sophisticated equipment to help babies breathe, a recently developed drug called surfactant, which helps the lungs stay expanded, and at all times the attention of specialized personnel, premature babies are more likely to survive than they did decades ago. newborns can survive with birth weight as low as 500 grams (just over a pound) and a gestational age of about 23 or 24 weeks. these tiny infants, however, often have developmental problems in children.
Most of the difficulty in performance between preterm infants seen in babies under 34 weeks gestational age. Government statistics today to distinguish between moderately preterm births (32 to 36 weeks) and very preterm births (less than 32 completed weeks of gestation). Also distinctions made between low birth weight (less than 2500 grams or 5? pounds), very low birth weight (1500 grams or less, about 31 / 3, pounds), and very low birth weight (1000 grams or less, about 2 Pounds).
In 1998, the total percentage of premature births in the United States was 11.6. This percentage has been increasing. in 1990, was 10.6 percent, in 1981, 9.4 percent. Most of the increase in 1998 was moderate in the group of premature babies born between 32 and 36 weeks of gestation.
One of the main reasons for premature births are increasing is that multiple births have become more common. Pregnancies with more than one baby are more likely to end prematurely than are pregnancies with one baby (called singleton pregnancies). Multiple births are also more likely to be underweight at birth.
Two trends account for the recent increase in multiple births. one is the highest number of births to women in their thirties, who are naturally more likely to have multiple births in younger women. the other is the proliferation of fertility treatments, some of which as a result of multiple fetuses. about 80 percent of births of triplets or more were due to fertility treatment in 1996 and 1997. In 2000, 18 percent of births to women aged 45 to 49 was a double, triple, or higher order multiple births. in 1999, one out of every 3 births to women aged 50 or over was a double or triple or higher order multiple births.
We can not discuss the rate of prematurity in the United States without noting the difference between the rate of Caucasian women (10.2 percent) and African American women (17.6 percent). A small part of this difference is due to more common occurrence of multiple births among black women. Socioeconomic background (poverty, inadequate nutrition, and lack of access to health services) is another part of the difference. Even among blacks who have achieved a high socioeconomic level, however, there is a difference in rates of preterm birth compared with Caucasians. We can not stop thinking that racial inequalities in this country continue to have effects even when aspects of inequality are overcome.