Davenport, IA -
A high rate of premature births has the March of Dimes putting out a warning for all women and hospitals across the nation. Both Iowa and Illinois have a "D" rating for preterm birth rates, which matches the national average.
Being born premature is one of the hardest ways to start a life. Inside the Genesis Neo-Natal ICU, Tara Lopez-Blackwell comforts her daughter Carmen, born five weeks early after she had a seizure and emergency C-section.
"She's actually gained a lot of weight. She was 3 pounds, 4 ounces and now she's 3 pounds, 8 ounces, so that's pretty good and she likes to smile a lot," says Lopez-Blackwell.
Science can't completely explain why some babies are born premature, but the number has gone up by more than 35 percent since the 80's. In Iowa, the preterm birth rate is 11.6 percent, in Illinois 13.1 percent. The rates are partly because pre-natal health care is an important step too many women are ignoring, smoking also increases the risk of premature births and data now shows the greatest gift you can give your baby is waiting until 39 weeks if possible.
"We as obstetricians have been taught for many years that term is 37 weeks to 40 weeks, 40 weeks being the due date, but recent data has shown that babies born at 38 weeks don't do as well as babies born at 39 to 40 weeks," says Dr. Stephen Hunter, March of Dimes Iowa Prematurity Chair.
Madison is one of the lucky ones born at Genesis, after being born 15 weeks premature she was the size of a dollar bill.
"She's low birth weight, but we have not seen any other problems with her since she was born. No problems with hearing, seeing, learning, she's catching up by leaps and bounds. She's just little," says Sue Cooper, Madison's grandmother.
But the difference of even a week can lead to brain development problems that can cause learning or behavioral problems and make parenting tougher.
"For the last 4 to 5 weeks in pregnancy a babies brain gains almost 35 percent in weight and volume so a lot of brain matter is being created and lots of connections being made," says Dr. Hunter.
Another part of problem is some women are choosing to have their babies before 39 weeks out of convenience.
"They say, 'my mom's coming into town, I know I'm only 38 weeks,' but we ought to come down on the side of the unborn baby and say waiting an extra week or two would be better for the child and mom can come later. Physicians might be going out of town and patients want their doctor to deliver their baby or the physician wants to be there and, again, that's probably not a good reason to deliver a baby pre-term," says Dr. Hunter.
The March of Dimes is now calling on all hospitals to enforce a policy not to allow C-sections or induced labor before 39 weeks, unless there's a medical reason for it. It's a policy that both Genesis Medical Center and Trinity Regional Health System enforce. Dr. Hunter says smaller hospitals in less populated areas are more likely to not have such a policy.
The March of Dimes ultimate goal is get the national average of premature births from 12.7 percent now, down to under 7.6 percent by 2010.
Being born premature is one of the hardest ways to start a life. Inside the Genesis Neo-Natal ICU, Tara Lopez-Blackwell comforts her daughter Carmen, born five weeks early after she had a seizure and emergency C-section.
"She's actually gained a lot of weight. She was 3 pounds, 4 ounces and now she's 3 pounds, 8 ounces, so that's pretty good and she likes to smile a lot," says Lopez-Blackwell.
Science can't completely explain why some babies are born premature, but the number has gone up by more than 35 percent since the 80's. In Iowa, the preterm birth rate is 11.6 percent, in Illinois 13.1 percent. The rates are partly because pre-natal health care is an important step too many women are ignoring, smoking also increases the risk of premature births and data now shows the greatest gift you can give your baby is waiting until 39 weeks if possible.
"We as obstetricians have been taught for many years that term is 37 weeks to 40 weeks, 40 weeks being the due date, but recent data has shown that babies born at 38 weeks don't do as well as babies born at 39 to 40 weeks," says Dr. Stephen Hunter, March of Dimes Iowa Prematurity Chair.
Madison is one of the lucky ones born at Genesis, after being born 15 weeks premature she was the size of a dollar bill.
"She's low birth weight, but we have not seen any other problems with her since she was born. No problems with hearing, seeing, learning, she's catching up by leaps and bounds. She's just little," says Sue Cooper, Madison's grandmother.
But the difference of even a week can lead to brain development problems that can cause learning or behavioral problems and make parenting tougher.
"For the last 4 to 5 weeks in pregnancy a babies brain gains almost 35 percent in weight and volume so a lot of brain matter is being created and lots of connections being made," says Dr. Hunter.
Another part of problem is some women are choosing to have their babies before 39 weeks out of convenience.
"They say, 'my mom's coming into town, I know I'm only 38 weeks,' but we ought to come down on the side of the unborn baby and say waiting an extra week or two would be better for the child and mom can come later. Physicians might be going out of town and patients want their doctor to deliver their baby or the physician wants to be there and, again, that's probably not a good reason to deliver a baby pre-term," says Dr. Hunter.
The March of Dimes is now calling on all hospitals to enforce a policy not to allow C-sections or induced labor before 39 weeks, unless there's a medical reason for it. It's a policy that both Genesis Medical Center and Trinity Regional Health System enforce. Dr. Hunter says smaller hospitals in less populated areas are more likely to not have such a policy.
The March of Dimes ultimate goal is get the national average of premature births from 12.7 percent now, down to under 7.6 percent by 2010.
