It's becoming a common trend: Women choosing to deliver their babies early for convenience. Traditionally, the thought was anytime after 37 weeks was okay to delver. But recent research may have mothers and their doctors thinking twice before choosing to deliver early.
It's supposed to be a time when dreams of a family come true, but when a baby is born too early, those dreams can become a nightmare.
"You're just helpless. You can't do much more than just stand back and watch," said Tami Nickerson, who had a premature baby.
Born four weeks early, Hunter Nickerson can barely be called premature, but his health problems tell another story. They include speech delays, a neurological condition called sensory integration disorder and acid reflux. Traditionally, any delivery after 37 weeks was considered normal. As more and more mothers deliver before their due date, new research shows every week counts in pregnancy- even past the 37th.
"I think we are learning more and more how important it is to avoid elective, preterm birth," said Dr. F. Sessions Cole, a Neonatologist at Children's Hospital in St. Louis.
Each week a baby is born before the 39th week adds a 23 percent higher chance they'll have complications like breathing problems, jaundice and infection. A recent study found babies born between four and eight weeks early had lower reading and math scores in first grade than babies carried to term.
"Late preterm birth is much more dangerous than we once thought," said Dr. Cole.
It's a shift in thinking that doctors hope will lead to a shift in the number of mothers choosing to deliver early.
While Tami didn't have a choice, she hopes mothers who do make the right choice. "If you can get to 40 weeks, by all means do it," said Nickerson.
In the last decade, the number of C-sections performed in the United States has nearly doubled, with about 30 percent of all babies being delivered by that method.
Dr. Cole says it's important to remember that a due date is an approximation, not an exact predication. It's not uncommon for a due date to be off by 10 to 14 days.
REASONS TO WAIT:
Other complications are already known to be common in babies born before 39 weeks of age, and the March of Dimes gives the 39-week guideline for the following medical reasons:
- Organs like the brain, lungs and liver need the last weeks to fully develop.
- A baby is less likely to have vision and hearing problems after birth if they are born after 39 weeks.
- The baby needs the final weeks to gain more weight in order to stay warm.
A baby can suck, swallow and stay awake more adequately after birth if carried to 39 weeks.
The traditional definition of premature birth is when the event takes place anytime before 37 weeks of gestation, but new research may redefine that time frame. "For each week before 39 weeks or more than one week early that baby is delivered, there is a 23 percent, or about a one in four, increase in the chances that the baby is going to have a breathing problem, a jaundice problem, a feeding problem, an infection problem or a temperature regulation problem," F. Sessions Cole, M.D., a neonatologist at St. Louis Children's Hospital, told Ivanhoe.
Because of research like this, the March of Dimes recommends mothers avoid delivering anytime before 39 weeks of gestation. A bulk of recent research on the long-term well-being of premature babies has focused on mental health complications. One study published recently in the
New England Journal of Medicine found significantly higher rates of cerebral palsy among babies born between 23 and 27 weeks compared to babies born at 37 weeks or later. Other research is drawing a link between preterm birth and autism.
A recent
American Journal of Pediatrics study found babies born more than three months premature appear twice as likely to screen positive on the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT) test. However, that percentage dropped to 10 percent when cognitive, visual, hearing and motor impairments weren't included in the calculation.
