Full term babies have significant health advantage

“It is clear that, regardless of race or ethnicity, every additional week of pregnancy is critical to a baby’s health,” said Dr. Alan R. Fleischman, medical director of the March of Dimes. So critical in fact that babies born at 37 or 38 weeks are twice as likely to die in the first year a babies born full term at 40 weeks.

Being born at 37 weeks has been considered early term delivery. Usually stats for those babies are lumped in together with the full term, 40 week babies. But research by the March of Dimes and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development shows there is a significant difference. They looked at records of 46 million births in the US between 1995 and 2006. They linked infant death certificate information with their birth records and made some new connections.

“Our study shows that there are often marked differences in the health of infants born in the early part of this period and those born in the later part,” said Dr. Uma M. Re4ddy of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

They found the proportion of infants born at 37 or 38 weeks increased from 22% to 29% while the proportion of births occurring at 40 weeks or greater fell from 60% to 54%. The babies born early were twice as likely to die before their first birthday (3.9 deaths per 1,000 births) as those born at 40 weeks (1.9 deaths per 1,000). The causes of death included birth defects, SIDS, oxygen deprivation during birth and accidents.

There are times when early delivery is necessary, like when babies are in distress or have certain conditions that require early intervention. However, it is clear that the early elective delivery may compromise the health of the baby. Dr. Fleischman strong urges women not to schedule elective deliveries before 39 to 40 weeks.

Source: LA Times