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More premature babies surviving, U.S. still ranks behind

New studies show the mortality rate for premature infants in the US has declined but is still doubled the number of some other countries.

In recent studies babies born between 22 and 28 weeks of the gestation period are surviving more. Between 2000 and 2011 infants whose deaths are from breathing complications, underdevelopment, infections and nervous system problems have declined. But an infant dying from necrotizing enterocolitis, which is deterioration of intestinal tissue, has increased. Dr. Ravi Mangal Patel assistant professor of pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine, talked about the results of the studies. “Although our study demonstrates that overall survival has improved in recent years among extremely premature infants, death still remains very high among this population,” he said. .

Although the US has made improvements in the mortality rate they still ranks low among other developed countries. In 2010 there were 6.1 deaths for every 1,000 live births, higher than 25 other countries that were studies out of a total of 28 including: Hungary, Poland, United Kingdom and Australia. Finland and Japan were ranked at the top with 2.3 deaths for every 1,000 live birth.

With all the progress being made 1 in 4 infants still aren’t surviving, and the infants that do survive can face long-term mental development problems. Mothers of babies that were dying were less likely to have steroid hormone therapy, one of the factors that could help lower the death rate. Prenatal care and cesarean sections are also factors that could help lower the rate the study also showed. Dr. Edward McCabe, medical director of the March of Dimes explained that every pregnancy should have a goal to deliver the baby between 38 and 42 weeks. “The later these babies are born, the better they will do,” he said. “When the health of the baby or mom is not at risk the best incubator that has been developed is the mothers’ womb.”.