Of these children, 46 percent had moderate to severe disabilities such as cerebral palsy, vision or hearing loss and learning disabilities, 34 percent had mild disabilities, and 20 percent had no disabilities. 12 percent had disabling cerebral palsy. Up to 15 out of 100 premature infants have significant hearing loss.As survival has improved, the focus of interventions directed at the newborn has shifted to reduce long-term disabilities, particularly those related to brain injury. Some of the complications related to prematurity may not be apparent until years after the birth. A long-term study demonstrated that the risks of medical and social disabilities extend into adulthood and are higher with decreasing gestational age at birth and include cerebral palsy, intellectual disability, disorders of psychological development, behavior, and emotion, disabilities of vision and hearing, and epilepsy. Standard intelligence tests showed that 41 percent of children born between 22 and 25 weeks had moderate or severe learning disabilities when compared to the test scores of a group of similar classmates who were born at full term. It is also shown that higher levels of education were less likely to be obtained with decreasing gestational age at birth. People born prematurely may be more susceptible to developing depression as teenagers. Some of these problems can be described as being within the executive domain and have been speculated to arise due to decreased myelinization of the frontal lobes.
Reducing spontaneous preterm birth
Reduction in activity by the mother—pelvic rest, limited work, bed rest—may be recommended although there is no evidence it is useful with some concerns it is harmful. Increasing medical care by more frequent visits and more education has not been shown to reduce preterm birth rates. Use of nutritional supplements such as omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids is based on the observation that populations who have a high intake of such agents are at low risk for preterm birth, presumably as these agents inhibit production of proinflammatory cytokines. A randomized trial showed a significant decline in preterm birth rates, and further studies are in the making. Antibiotics
While antibiotics can get rid of bacterial vaginosis in pregnancy, this does not appear to change the risk of preterm birth. It has been suggested that chronic chorioamnionitis is not sufficiently treated by antibiotics alone (and therefore they cannot ameliorate the need for preterm delivery in this condition). Progestogens
Progestogens—often given in the form of vaginal progesterone or hydroxyprogesterone caproate—relax the uterine musculature, maintain cervical length, and possess anti-inflammatory properties; all of which invoke physiological and anatomical changes considered to be beneficial in reducing preterm birth. Two meta-analyses demonstrated a reduction in the risk of preterm birth in women with recurrent preterm birth by 40–55%.Progestogen supplementation also reduces the frequency of preterm birth in pregnancies where there is a short cervix. A short cervix is one that is less than 25mm, as detected during a transvaginal cervical length assessment in the midtrimester.