There’s a one in eight chance that if you’re having a baby, you will delivery prematurely. This staggering statistic is the reason why today is Prematurity Awareness Day. The goal: help women learn how to protect themselves and their unborn babies.

The problem still has doctors shrugging their shoulders. It’s not a well understood problem. But there are things women can do to reduce their risk for delivering prematurely, and avoid the complications the baby can suffer as a result.

“In the beginning everything was fine, the first three months I wasn’t sick or anything, once I reached four months that is when my nightmare started.” Regina Victor-Elisma had already had two miscarriages, and this latest pregnancy was no picnic. But she felt fortunate to deliver successfully, even if it wasn’t normal. “They put her on the incubator without oxygen and took her to the nice, a round seven ounces, one pound seven ounces,
recalls Regina.

Dr. Jennifer Howse, the President of the March of Dimes, says, “When a baby is born premature many of them spend a great deal of time in neonatal intensive care and they can have life long health consciousness like mental retardation, cerebral palsy or blindness. It’s often the tiniest patients who have the biggest hospital bills.”

In half of these cases of premature birth, there is no known cause. A woman can do everything right and still have a premature baby. “For the fifty percent of causes where we don’t know the reasons, March of Dimes wants the nation to invest in research and March of Dimes is certainly investing in a very large research program for the cause,” says Dr. Howse.

The reason: the total national cost for inpatient hospital stays associated with prematurity was estimated at 18 billion dollars in 2003.

The consequences of prematurity can be devastating. Many babies who survive face lifelong health disabilities, such as cerebral palsy, mental retardation, chronic lung disease, blindness and hearing loss. “It is now an epidemic in our country, over half a million babies are born every year premature, that means less than 37 weeks of pregnancy, so that is a problem that is common and costly and serious,” Dr. Howse states.

Prematurity is the #1 killer of America’s newborns. The problem has increased 30 percent since 1981.

Dr. Nathan Rubenstein, Director of OBGYN Ultrasound at Long Island College Hospital, says, “Unfortunately, there is nothing that anyone can do. There are more and more funds going to research to decrease the incidence of preterm labor and preterm delivery but unfortunately we don’t’ know what triggers normal labor and until we don’t know what triggers normal labor we downy be able to prevent preterm birth.”

Certain lifestyle factors may put a woman at greater risk of preterm labor. These factors include: late or no prenatal care; smoking; drinking alcohol; using illegal drugs; domestic violence, including physical, sexual or emotional abuse; stress; and long working hours with long periods of standing.

If you have any of these risk factors, you should discuss this with your OB.

Three groups of women are at greatest risk of preterm labor and birth: Women who have had a previous preterm birth; women who are pregnant with twins, triplets or more;
And women with certain uterine or cervical abnormalities.

Anyone that has an overdistention of the uterus due to fluid, very big babies, or multiple babies, or women who have had a cone biopsy are at risk for a preterm delivery.

So, this day--a day pink and blue ribbons nationwide--is a call for battling premature births--with the hope for a future cure on the near horizon, with research into why the problem occurs in the first place, today.

For more on this, go to www.marchofdimes.org

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