Washington – It’s a serious issue facing more American parents: premature births. Over the last 25 years, the number of those births has soared 30 percent in the United States – to more than 500,000 a year. The trend is so alarming that today the surgeon general gathered a panel to discuss how to reverse it.
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“The United States is one of the worst of the developed countries in the rate of prematurity,” said Dr. Alan Fleischman, medical director of the March of Dimes.
According to Fleischman, one out of every eight babies is now born too early, and that costs the United States about $26 billion a year.
“We need to decrease the numbers of sick babies in our midst. We can’t continue to increase prematurity,” he said.
Neonatologist Robin Baker says late preemies face developmental problems, just like babies born much earlier.
“And it’s not uncommon for them to come out and still have respiratory problems. You know this infant still is at risk of dying. Just because they are born slightly preterm doesn’t’ take the risk to zero.”
So today’s surgeon general’s conference is hoping to come up with an action plan by tomorrow.
As multiple births increase, premature births increase.
As a parent of a premature baby I am curious to know what kind of action plan has been decided on, at the surgeous general’s conference yesterday?
Maybe it’s also b/c that in certain communities which shall remain nameless, people don’t go for pre-natal care, get pregnant unmarried at a young age, do drugs, have STDs, etc etc. All of these factors contribute to an increased likelihood of premature birth.
However, this will be discussed only peripherally b/c it’s very politically incorrect to say such things. It sounds much better to say that the high rate of prematurity is from not throwing even more money at an already-bloated healthcare system, or b/c we’re ignoring poor inner city minorities, etc.