Premature Births Are Fueling Higher Rates of Infant Mortality in U.S

Premature Births Are Fueling Higher Rates of Infant Mortality in U.S., Report Says
By DENISE GRADY
Published: November 3, 2009

High rates of premature birth are the main reason the United States has higher infant mortality than do many other rich countries, government researchers reported Tuesday in their first detailed analysis of a longstanding problem.

In Sweden, for instance, 6.3 percent of births were premature, compared with 12.4 percent in the United States in 2005, the latest year for which international rankings are available. Infant mortality also differed markedly: for every 1,000 births in the United States, 6.9 infants died before they turned 1, compared with 2.4 in Sweden. Twenty-nine other countries also had lower rates.

If the United States could match Sweden’s prematurity rate, the new report said, “nearly 8,000 infant deaths would be averted each year, and the U.S. infant mortality rate would be one-third lower.”

The first author of the report, Marian F. MacDorman, a statistician at the National Center for Health Statistics, said in an interview that the strong role prematurity played came as a surprise to her. More

Faith's Lodge

DANBURY, WIS. - Kelly Alvar sat tearfully inside Children's Hospital of Minneapolis, her 6-day-old son in her arms, knowing that his heart would soon stop beating. She and her husband, Nate, wanted their premature baby to have as peaceful a death as possible. When he lay there motionless that day in May, a bundle of soft skin and tufts of dark hair, their grieving officially began.

Friends and family tried to help, but they couldn't really understand, Kelly Alvar said. The couple wanted to get away. But everywhere they went, it seemed, they saw happy families and celebrations.

Now they and others will have a place to go, a retreat thought to be the only one of its kind in the nation. Faith's Lodge opened its gates Saturday in the northern Wisconsin forest to families that are grieving the death of a child or have a child who is seriously ill. The 80 acres, located about two hours from the Twin Cities, are designed with sensitivity to grief. More

It can happen to anyone

Gordon Brown is the new prime minister of the UK. Sadly he understands something about losing a much loved baby, suddenly and shockingly. It doesn't sound right to say "it's good" to have someone in a position of world power who understands the tragedy of losing a baby, but I guess you know what I mean.

When my first baby died almost a year ago, I struggled in the beginning to understand that I wasn't specifically chosen for this ordeal. It really can happen to anyone and can be completely indiscriminate.

Gordon Brown was the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the UK when his daughter Jennifer Jane Brown was born seven weeks prematurely by C-section. Her mother had a low level of amniotic fluid and Jennifer had IUGR. She was expected to be fine despite her low birth weight but she died ten days later after a brain haemorrhage, a common occurrence in pre-term babies.

I can imagine that, since she was born on 28th December and died on 7th January, the festive period brings back so many emotions for her parents.

Gordon and Sarah Brown now have two sons. Their first son was born two years after Jennifer Jane. Their second son was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when he was four months old.

You can read an archive news story from 2002 about Jennifer Jane Brown here.

Canadian Study into prematurity

Nitro patches improve preemie health: study

Updated Sun. Mar. 25 2007 11:38 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff

Queen's University researchers have found giving nitroglycerin to women in premature labour greatly improves their baby's health. (continue)