Premature may mean just a week early

We all know the physical and mental (really the same thing) problems that preemies are prone to. This study of 40,000 kids in Scotland found an increase in the number of kids identified as special needs with kids born even a week before the nominal normal of 40 weeks. For kids born between 37 and 39 weeks, the increase was 16%.

Still, the total of preemies and and just a little early come to about 9% of kids with special needs. So 91% of special needs kids are full-term, and you have to expect that some (maybe 91%?) of the other 9% would have had special needs if they had held out until 40 weeks, so I don't see anything here that would change our practices.

I wonder about kids born at 41 weeks. Or do they allow that now that we can induce pregnancy so easily.

Mental disorders among extreme premees

A study of 219 extreme premees (<26 weeks) in the UK showed about a quarter of them had a psychiatric disorder at 11 years of age: 12% had ADHD, 9% emotional disorders, and 8% autism spectrum.

I have a hard time with our ability to have kids survive earlier and earlier births. Kids born before their lungs and brains and hearts have developed to normal birth standards end up screwed up in lots of ways. Sometimes I think kids born so young should be treated like hospice patients; if they can live without intubation, they live. Otherwise, let the parents start over.

I know that's not really an option; you can't just tell parents that any kid born before XX weeks doesn't deserve to live, but it also seems to me much like finding out that your fetus has Down syndrome. You never know for sure, but if I were pregnant with a Down syndrome kid, I think I would abort it. What would I do if I knew or thought my kid would have cystic fibrosis, a defective heart valve, an 80 IQ, and a personality disorder? I don't know. What would I recommend others do? I would not recommend anything. That's way above my pay grade.

Fewer preemies

The premature birth rate dropped more than 20% between 1990 and 2006. We must be doing something right. The article at the link says strategies include "smoking cessation programs, progesterone treatments for women with a history of preterm birth, avoiding multiples from fertility treatments and avoiding unnecessary c-sections and inductions before 39 weeks."