Protect the Preemies - November 18th Is Premature Baby Awareness Day

My mother always tells the story that my brother and I didn’t want to be Fall babies as predicted and were stubborn enough to be born in the Summer months. Although my older brother and I are three years apart, we were both born three months early, the preemie-preemies. Hospitals have come a long way since the 1980s but premature birth is still a huge risk for babies and for those that survive, just the fact that the babies weren’t fully developed in the womb before birth can cause health and mental problems down the line.

One in every 8 babies born in the United States are premature. (Premature is defined as delivery prior to 37 weeks of gestation.) A lot of babies are kept in the hospital weeks or months after delivery until they are able to go home, throwing families into turmoil waiting for their little one to get released, hopefully without any lingering health problems.

New studies on the subject have been cropping up in November, as it is Prematurity Awareness Month, and today, Tuesday, November 18th, is Prematurity Awareness Day put in place by the March of Dimes  to occur every third Tuesday in November annually. An entire month devoted to the health of your baby may not be enough, but the March of Dimes has a goal to inform parents-to-be as well as couples already graced with the presence of a baby to understand the importance of staying healthy during the pregnancy.

The March of Dimes suggests there are ways to tell if you might be going into preterm labor. The major warning signs include: abdominal contractions every ten minutes or more, advanced pressure on your pelvis, period-like cramps with or without diarrhea, a low backache, or a change in vaginal discharge like fluid or blood. If you do have these symptoms, go to your doctor’s office immediately or go directly to the hospital, drink two or three glasses of water or juice but no coffee or soda, and rest on your left side for one hour.

Another contributory symptom to prematuare birth that has been garnering a lot of attention lately is depression. A recent study published in Human Reproduction shows that women with signals of sadness and depression are twice as likely to deliver preterm babies as women without the symptoms. With early delivery being the leading cause of infant sickness and death in America, more than 40 percent of women admit to having feelings of depression. Doctors at Kaiser Permanente who conducted the study say that depression during pregnancy is widely undiagnosed and although pregnant women have been prescribed anti-depressants, the study’s authors aren’t sure of their safety. The researchers hope that more investigation into these claims will inspire doctors and the patient’s family to help curb depression if that means reducing the risk of sending the mother into an early birth that will threaten the life of her and her baby.

Premature babies are born everyday and while some are lucky enough to incur no health problems. A lot of preterm babies end up with initial health problems such as blindness, mental retardation, chronic lung disease and cerebral palsy (which can provide a mental and physical handicap to the child). Later in life, preterm babies can also develop learning disabilities that can affect education and social interaction.

Having a baby is supposed to be the happiest day of any couple’s life and complications during pregnancy are any parent’s worst fear. The March of Dimes have released a Premature Birth Report Card showing how poorly our 50 states fared in the rankings in order to bring the awareness to Prematurity Awareness Day this week. By staying educated on the dangers of preterm pregnancies and their potential causes, maybe the United States can come together to raise their grades and lower the premature baby rate in the hopes that birthdays stay joyous occasions. Through therapy as an infant, multiple surgeries, and lots of love my brother learned to work with his mild form of cerebral palsy and has since gone on to have his own healthy family. I survived premature birth with dozens of IV scars and a strong will. After months in the hospital, thousands in bills, and years of worrying on behalf of our parents, we were relatively unscathed, but all preemies aren’t as lucky.