The health problems of preemie babies cause untold heartache for new parents.
But these families also face a strained financial future, a new study finds.
About 30% of parents with a very low birth weight baby, under 3.3 pounds, have had to make serious decisions a...
Over the past decade, rates of preterm birth in the United States jumped more than 10%, a new study of more than 5 million births shows.
The rise dovetailed with an increase in some factors that make an early delivery more likely, including rates of
Not all babies born prematurely will suffer long-term developmental problems, a new study finds.
Preemies tend to fall into three risk categories, with about one in five (20%) scoring above average on standard cognitive tests, researchers reported Aug. 13 in the journal ...
Simantha Nation’s son, Atticus, struggled to breathe from his very first gasp for air.
Born very preterm at 26 weeks’ gestation, Atticus was rushed to the NICU, where he was intubated and connected to a ventilator.
The first time Nation saw her son, h...
Low-birth-weight newborns have a higher risk of health complications if they become obese as children, a new study has found.
Obese children who were low-birth-weight babies have a higher risk of insulin resistance, fatty liver and other health problems, researchers foun...
Women who deliver low-birth-weight babies could be more likely to have memory and thinking problems later in life, a new study warns.
As seniors, these women had brain test scores that indicated one to two years of additional aging in their memory and thinking skills, co...
Active military service appears to increase a woman's risk of having a low birthweight baby, a new review finds.
Nearly two-thirds of studies (63%) conclude that women on active service could be at higher risk of having a baby with low birth weight, researchers reported ...
People with autoimmune disorders such as lupus, type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis tend to have fewer children, and women with this class of illnesses often have higher risks for complications of pregnancy, new research shows.
Researchers in Finland compared pregna...
Surging temperatures caused by climate change could lead to more premature births worldwide, a new study reports.
Researchers found a strong association between exposure to extreme heat during the third trimester of pregnancy and the risk of premature delivery.
"Hi...
There is no significant link between premature birth and autism, new research out of Israel suggests.
Findings from the study of more than 100,000 deliveries were presented Tuesday at a meeting of the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine in National Harbor, Md.
...Preterm births linked to "hormone-disruptor"chemicals in plastics cost the U.S. health care system billions of dollars, a new study claims.
Daily exposure to phthalates -- chemicals used to manufacture plastics -- might be tied to nearly 56,000 preterm births in the Unit...
Using ultrasound to measure blood flow in the placenta and the fetus could help spot issues tied to low birth weight, researchers report.
As the Dutch investigators explained, about 10% of fetuses are determined to be "small for gestational age" after ultrasound examinat...
Pregnant women exposed to flame-retardant chemicals could face an increased risk of premature birth, a new study warns.
Organophosphate esters (OPEs) are commonly used as flame retardants in products like furniture, baby items, electronics, clothes and building materials...
Babies born even slightly early have a higher long-term risk of developmental difficulties that could affect their behavior and learning ability, a new study finds.
Infants born moderately (32-33 weeks) or late preterm (34-36 weeks) are more likely to have epilepsy or pr...
Ultrasound scans that pick up "microstructural" changes in a woman's cervix could point to her having a higher risk for preterm birth, researchers report.
The scans were done as early as week 23 of pregnancy and could help assess risks for "preemie" delivery, even among ...
Having mom or dad hold their preemie baby against their own skin immediately after birth appears to help the infants in their development months later, new research shows.
In many neonatal wards, babies born prematurely are transferred soon after delivery to an incubator...
COVID vaccines saved the lives and health of countless babies by preventing their premature births, a new study shows.
COVID-19 initially caused an alarming surge in premature birth rates, but those returned to pre-pandemic levels following the introduction of vaccines, ...
THURSDAY, Nov. 16, 2023 (Healthday News) -- Using cannabis during pregnancy may not be as benign as some think, with a new review showing it raises the risk for both premature and low birth weight newborns.
In turn, that raised the chances of these infants winding up in ...
The timing of a simple, standard part of childbirth could mean the difference between life and death for premature babies, a pair of new evidence reviews have concluded.
Preemies whose umbilical cords are clamped 30 seconds to two minutes after birth are less likely to d...
Air pollution from heavy traffic may be driving pregnancy complications and health concerns for infants.
Researchers who matched more than 60,000 birth records with air-monitoring data found that pregnant patients living in an urban area with elevated levels of nitrogen ...
Smoking during pregnancy is a significant risk factor for premature births, but drinking coffee is not, new research suggests.
Women who smoked during pregnancy were 2.6 times more likely to give birth prematurely compared to nonsmokers, a risk that was double that of pr...
Advisors to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will weigh the possibilities and parameters of experiments with artificial wombs for premature human babies.
Scientists have already had some success with the concept in animals.
Infants born three to six weeks early -- considered late preterm -- are at risk for learning problems, but they can be overcome, researchers say.
Preschool attendance and sensitive parenting can help them bridge the gap academically, a new study shows.
"Our findin...
About 1 in 5 newborns hospitalized for surgery to treat a life-threatening bowel infection are given opioids for pain relief and some then need methadone to wean off the addictive drugs.
But there is wide variability in use of opioids after surgery in infants, and babies...
Black women have significantly more preterm births than white women do, and though almost a third of these extra cases can be explained by heart issues and social factors, the rest remain a mystery.
However, targeting those known factors could improve birth outcomes, a n...
Steroids are often unnecessarily prescribed to pregnant women thought to be at risk of preterm birth, a new evidence review contends.
As a result, millions of babies are needlessly exposed to long-term health problems associated with steroid use in gestation, such as inc...
It's not only a mother's mental health that is tied to the risk for preterm birth -- the father's matters, too.
New research found that the risk of premature birth was higher for infants whose mothers or fathers had a psychiatric diagnosis than for those whose parents di...
About half of extremely preterm babies have at least one life-threatening bacterial infection in their bloodstream after 72 hours of life.
Now, new research points to the babies' own gut microbiomes as the source.
Knowing that the most common bacteria in bloodstr...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday formally withdrew its approval of a drug that was meant to prevent preterm births.
Sold as Makena, the drug was first approved in 2011 under the FDA's accelerated approval program, but subsequent research questioned the m...
While an incubator can save the life of a premature baby, it may be contributing to hearing loss in these vulnerable infants.
A new study published March 27 in Frontiers in Pediatrics assessed the sounds in the neonatal intensive care unit, evaluating the impact...
Jennifer Canvasser had never heard of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) before she gave birth to twins three months prematurely in 2011, but she has since devoted her life to raising awareness about this potentially fatal intestinal disease.
Her son Micah developed NEC whe...
Pregnant women will no longer have any drug to prevent preterm birth after the maker of the only available treatment announced Tuesday that it will withdraw its product, Makena, from the market.
Covis Pharma Group's decision follows a U.S. Food and Drug Administration ad...
Premature births dropped during lockdowns in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A groundbreaking study, which included a group of mostly high-income countries -- including the Unite...
Pregnant girls who are especially young, those only 10 to 15 years old, face increased risks for complications that include preeclampsia and C-section, according to new research.
Investigators from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas also found that...
Exposure to wildfire smoke can increase the risk of premature birth, new research suggests.
For the study, the researchers reviewed birth certificates and hospital delivery data for more than 2.5 million pregnant women in California from 2007 to 2012, and used satellite ...
Major pregnancy complications, such as preeclampsia and preterm birth, should be recognized as lifelong risk factors for women's heart disease, new research suggests.
Women who experience any of the five major pregnancy complications have an increased risk of ischemic...
By the time they're teenagers, babies born prematurely may be getting poorer school grades than their non-preemie peers.
Researchers found that babies born before 34 weeks of pregnancy had lower scores on math and language tests during their teen years compared to kids b...
Kids who are the youngest in their grade may be overmedicated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to a Norwegian researcher who studied prescribing data.
Those who were also born preterm were at particular risk of being overmedicated, said
In U.S. states with more restrictive abortion policies, rates of pregnant women, new mothers and infants dying were higher, a new report finds.
Babies born prematurely who are fed formula may need iron supplementation like their breastfed counterparts, new research suggests.
"Just because a baby is on iron-rich formula, we should not assume all of their iron needs are being met, since iron from the formula may ...
More than 1 in every 10 births in the United States now occur prematurely, and the number of these more dangerous deliveries jumped by 4% during 2021, a new report from the March of Dimes shows.
The premature birth rate has now reached 10.5% of all births -- the highest ...
A hormone therapy commonly used to prevent preterm births probably isn't effective, a new study reports.
Doctors have been prescribing vaginal progesterone treatments to help at-risk pregnant women delay delivery for as long as possible, researchers said.
But a new...
Protecting pregnant women from air pollution may improve the birth weight of their babies, a new study suggests.
This is especially important for stressed-out mothers who live in neighborhoods burdened by poor air quality.
A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory committee on Wednesday voted to recommend that a controversial drug meant to prevent premature births be pulled from the market.
In a three-day hearing that began Monday, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory committee will give the maker of a drug meant to prevent premature births a chance to show why its drug should not be pulled off the market.
Too much anxiety isn't good for anyone, but a new study suggests it is particularly perilous for pregnant women because it can raise the chances of their ...
While babies born prematurely may lag behind their elementary school peers, they eventually catch up, British researchers report.
By the end of high school, only the kids born before 32 weeks of gestation were continuing to struggle, according to a new study published on...
Children born a little early -- before 39 weeks of pregnancy -- are more likely to have symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), new research suggests.
While birth before 37 weeks' gestation has known links to hyperactivity, impulsivity and inattentio...
Women who have inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) should work with a doctor to get it into remission before pregnancy, a new study indicates.
Numerous studies have found discrimination can hurt aspects of human health.
Now, new research adds to that the impact of discrimination on the youngest humans by linking discrimination with a heightened risk of underweight and