are babies being born earlier
Follow @TIMEHealth. Pregnancy lasts 40 weeks for a reason. At 35 weeks, a baby’s brain tips the scales at just two-thirds of what it will weigh by weeks 39 to 40. Going full-term gives a baby’s lungs time to mature and improves a baby’s ability to suck and swallow. But too many doctors — and moms — are disregarding advice from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to wait until at least 39 weeks to deliver. The earlier in pregnancy a baby is born, the more likely he is to have health problems. Some premature babies have to spend time in a hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (also called NICU). This is the part of a hospital that takes care of sick newborns. This figure shows the percent difference between first babies and others for weeks 34 through 46: The general pattern is that first babies are more likely to be early (37 weeks or less), less likely to be on time (38-40), and more likely to be late (41 or more). In terms of relative risk, first babies are 8% more likely to be born early and 66% more likely to be late. And those differences are statistically significant (using a chi-square test, p < 0.001). A premature baby is one who is born too early, before 37 weeks. Premature babies may have more health problems and may need to stay in the hospital longer than babies born later. They also may have long-term health problems that can affect their whole lives. In the hands of experienced specialists, though, babies born slightly earlier may have a chance at survival. Babies born at 23 weeks may survive with these specialists in a state-of-the-art NICU, but the odds of survival are much lower. Premature Birth Survival. Strictly speaking, most doctors define the age of viability as being about 24 weeks of gestation. In many hospitals, 24 weeks is the cutoff point for when doctors will use intensive medical intervention to attempt to save the life of a baby born prematurely. By Mayo Clinic Staff. While not all premature babies experience complications, being born too early can cause short-term and long-term health problems for preemies. Generally, the earlier a baby is born, the higher the risk of complications. Birth weight plays an important role, too. The earliest baby to have ever survived premature birth was born at 21 weeks and 6 days, and this was reported in the news as having been a miracle.. Odds of survival increase as the pregnancy progresses, and even an extra week in the womb can make a difference. The older you are, the more likely you are to give birth early. Teenage moms tend to give birth about three days early, while moms in their 40s trek to the hospital about a week in advance. Part of this is due to birth order, as teenage moms are much more likely to be carrying their first children. Advertisement. It’s not the first hint that preemies are at higher risk of health issues for being born before their development was completed. Some recent studies showed, for example, that babies who were born earlier had poorer test scores in reading and math compared with those born full term.
Yes, the earlier a baby is born the higher the risk of complications.