November is National Prematurity Awareness Month

**allnurses**

Premature birth is categorized as an infant born prior to 37 weeks gestation. This is a world-wide issue. Statistics from the World Health Organization:

Key facts

Every year, an estimated 15 million babies are born preterm (before 37 completed weeks of gestation), and this number is rising.
Preterm birth complications are the leading cause of death among children under 5 years of age, responsible for nearly 1 million deaths in 2015.
Three-quarters of them could be saved with current, cost-effective interventions.
Across 184 countries, the rate of preterm birth ranges from 5% to 18% of babies born.

There sub-categories of prematurity based on gestational age:

extremely preterm (<28 weeks)
very preterm (28 to <32 weeks)
moderate to late preterm (32 to <37 weeks)

Globally, prematurity is the leading cause of death in children under the age of 5. And in almost all countries with reliable data, preterm birth rates are increasing.

Inequalities in survival rates around the world are stark. In low-income settings, half of the babies born at or below 32 weeks (2 months early) die due to a lack of feasible, cost-effective care, such as warmth, breastfeeding support, and basic care for infections and breathing difficulties. In high-income countries, almost all of these babies survive.

Infants born prior to 37 weeks can experience a host of difficulties. Premature infants often require care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and can remain in-patient for many weeks and often months. In the NICU, ICU nurses and providers care for these tiny children. Much specialized equipment is utilized to care for these patients. Prematurity can result in death and many life-long complications including:

The March of Dimes has extensive research into premature birth, prevention as well as post-birth interventions. They have developed five research centers in the US to help combat this devastating complication:

The first Center was launched in 2011 at Stanford University School of Medicine, followed by the March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center - Ohio Collaborative in 2013. In 2014, two more centers were launched. On November 10, the March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center at Washington University was established in St. Louis, Mo. The next Research Center was opened at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pa. The final center, March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center University of Chicago-Northwestern-Duke was launched in 2015. Together, this network of five research centers leverage specific and complementary strengths to accelerate productivity. Collective progress will translate into diagnostics and treatments to prevent premature birth.

Most poignant are the personal stories of parents and their infants. GE Healthcare provides the following:

Thru these parents' words of wisdom and daily interactions with the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) staff, they tell their stories. Prematurity is one of the main foci of the National March of Dimes. Their campaign, Healthy Babies are Worth the Wait, emphasizes the need for solid and continuous prenatal care as well as access to the NICU if premature birth or other birth complications occur.

AN and GE Healthcare bring this hot topic to focus via the following stories about prematurity. NICU nurses and parents who have experienced prematurity are sharing their words of inspiration on this Pinterest board for parents who may be experiencing the NICU journey today. The impact on the family as a whole and the care required for these infants is phenomenal. The stories of the following NICU patients and families will give you a glimpse of the prematurity experience.

Mae Davis and her Twins - Born 15 weeks early, weighing 1 lb 9 oz and 1 lb 10 oz. Multiples have a higher risk of being born prematurely due to a host of maternal and fetal complications.

Another set of twins born at 26 weeks: Ashley Piche

Prematurity is a worldwide epidemic. Here is a story of Baby Yohannes.

Closer to home is a story from Indiana: For This Mother, the Third Time was Golden

As research continues to reduce the number of premature births in the US and worldwide, the personal stories will always be in the forefront of researchers and companies that develop equipment to care for our most fragile infants.

References:

Baby Center

GE Healthcare

March of Dimes

World Health Organization