Number Of Premature Babies Rises Sharply

The Institute of Medicine issued a report last Thursday saying that the rate of premature births in this country has risen more than 30% in the last two decades. The researchers said that 1 out of 8 babies, or more than 500,000 babies a year are now born prematurely. The extra medical cost for these babies is a staggering $26 billion a year. In spite of modern healthcare, about 1 out of 5 of these babies die each year.

The researchers only had two recommendations:

1. More pregnant women should receive a first trimester ultrasound, to be certain of the fetus' exact age.
2. Doctors should implant less embryos during in-vitro fertilization.

The reason they didn't have more recommendations, is because they have no idea what is causing the rise in the rate of premature babies. Because of this, they are urging the U.S. government to launch a major new research program to pinpoint the cause or causes.

I'm not a doctor, but the "1 in 8" number struck me as odd, because that's also the ratio of citizen's in this country who do not have any kind of health insurance. Out of a country of nearly 300 million people, about 40 million are without medical insurance [which makes a rate of about 1 in 8]. The pregnant women in this 40 million do not get adequate pre-natal care. In fact, the only real medical option for these 40 million is the Emergency Room of their local hospital.

I'm not trying to say that all premature births are due to having no insurance. But I do believe that figure would go down if all pregnant women in this country had health insurance, and received proper pre-natal care.

We are still the only industrialized nation in the world that does not cover all its citizens with medical insurance. We should be ashamed.