New information on preemies likely to stress parents more
Categories: Pregnancy & birth, Development, In the news
Up until now, the agonizing decision on what medical treatment to give (or not give) a severely premature baby was based on how many weeks had been spent in the womb. Babies born at 24 weeks are routinely given intensive care, but those with a gestational age any younger were treated on a case by case basis.
However, new research has turned up other factors that seem to strongly affect a premature baby's odds of survival: being a single birth and having an extra 3.5 ounces of weight, or being giving a lung-maturing steroid before birth and being a girl, helped the infants as much as an extra week in utero.
While it's important for parents to have as much information as possible, it's unfortunate that parents of boys will only get a triple scoop of stress over something they have absolutely no control.
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