Premature Awareness Month
Premature Awareness is celebrated in November.
Awareness Color is Purple.
Prematurity Awareness Day is Nov. 17th.
Do you know the difference?
Premature and preterm are widely used interchangeably, but they do have separate meanings:
Premature is born before the baby is fully developed or matured.
Preterm is born before the end of the 37th week.
Both are referred to babies born prior to the 37th week.
Types of Preterm births
Born between 23 and 28 weeks gestation-Extreme Preterm
Born between 29 and 33 weeks-Moderately Preterm
Born between 34 and 37 weeks-Late Preterm
Premature births are the number one cause of newborn deaths in the US and around the world.
Not all premature babies will have problems, but the more extreme the more likely to have problems. There are even instances were late preterm babies have significant problems.
Thankfully, technology has advanced to assisting with survival rates of premature/preterm births.
What are some risk factors?
- Infections
- Diabetes
- High blood pressures
- Clotting Disorders
- Certain Birth defects in infant
- Short time between pregnancies
- Vaginal bleeding
- Mother being overweight or underweight
- Late or no prenatal care
- Stress
- Smoking in pregnancy
- Domestic Violence
- Lack of social support
- Drinking or using illegal drugs
To see the report card for prematurity in the U.S. click this link: https://www.marchofdimes.org/mission/prematurity-reportcard.aspx
Signs of Pre-Term Birth
- Constant low, dull backache
- Change in vaginal discharge-watery, bloody, mucus or more discharge than usual
- Pressure in low pelvis or low belly
- Belly cramps with or without diarrhea
- Regular or frequent contractions that make your stomach tighten
- Your water breaks
How to Prevent?
- Be healthy during pregnancy-have a healthy weight before pregnancy and gain a healthy amount of weight during pregnancy.
- Don’t smoke, drink, use illegal drugs, or abuse prescription drugs.
- Protect yourself from infections.
- Get treated for chronic health conditions
- Reduce stress
- Wait at least 18 months between pregnancies
- Get prenatal care
Prematurity is an important cause to me. My oldest niece was born premature and my little one was born at 32 weeks. I plan to do special events in the future for prematurity and NICU awareness.
Updated Statistics (March of Dimes 2019 Report Card)
- Average cost of pre-term births are $65,00
- United States Prematurity grade is a C, with a preterm birthrate of 10.0%
- Oklahoma, my home state, received a D-, with a 11.4% preterm birthrate
- Oregon received an A-, with a 7.8% preterm birthrate
- Georgia, Louisiana, West Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Puerto Rico received Fs, with Mississippi being the highest at 14.2% and Georgia the lowest at 11.5%
- Black women experienced the highest preterm births at 13.6%
- To view the entire report card click the link in the parentheses above
Information in this post was obtained from the following links:
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/preterm-birth
https://www.cdc.gov/features/prematurebirth/index.html
https://www.marchofdimes.org/complications/preterm-labor-and-premature-birth-are-you-at-risk.aspx
http://kfap.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/1-The-Facts-About-Preterm-Birth.pdf
https://www.marchofdimes.org/mission/reportcard.aspx
