This year, as Mother’s Day approaches, one group of mothers worthy of special recognition are those whose babies are born prematurely. For, along with their bundles of joy, may also come hardships.
While recent Center for Disease Control statistics showed a slight decline in the national rate, preterm birth continues to be a serious problem throughout the U.S. March of Dimes statistics (which appeared on their website several years ago) revealed that Maine reported the second highest increase in the nation in their rate of preterm births between 1992 and 2002.
One set of “preemies” who have come under particular scrutiny, in recent months, are babies who experience late preterm births (35-40 weeks). Research studies have shown that the last few weeks babies spend in the womb may be more important than was formerly thought.
According to the March of Dimes, a baby’s brain at 35 weeks weighs only 2/3 of what it would weigh at 40 weeks. They report that during the last 6 weeks of pregnancy a baby’s brain adds connections which are needed for balance, coordination, learning, and social functioning.
Lincoln County resident Kelly Roopchand agrees that the final weeks are important. Kelly and her husband, Anil, live in Somerville. Their son, Keiran, was born at 35 weeks after Kelly went into early labor. Kelly shared recently that being born five weeks early made quite a difference especially during the first few months of Keiran’s life.
“Keiran looked great when he was first born,” Roopchand said. “He looked like a normal baby. He wasn’t scrawny-looking. He weighed 5 lbs. 15 ounces… He only spent 3 days in the hospital…He didn’t pass the car-seat test though…His neck muscles weren’t strong enough to hold his head up in the car seat. So he had to go home in a car bed… Twenty-four hours later we had to bring him back because he had jaundice. They put him under the light for one and a half days.”
Roopchand remembers that even though Keiran looked normal, he still displayed some of the behaviors that are common to preterm babies.
“He was a popeyed preemie,” Roopchand said. “He startled really easily and had problems with self-regulation… We had to create like a den for him. We got blackout curtains and kept noise to a minimum. It was like he needed to be in the womb longer.”
Roopchand said she had a difficult time finding literature about babies born at that stage in pregnancy. She would like to have had more reading materials to find out more about what to expect from her baby. She wonders if she sometimes expected too much of him.
“He became easily overwhelmed and I think that sometimes he was over stimulated,” she said. “I took him out places and I think that I should have stayed at home more and just continued to focus in on holding him during the first few months…”
Today Keiran is doing well even though he may be slightly behind in his physical development, according to his mother.
“He’s nine months old now and he’s just working on crawling,” Roopchand said. “Socially he is actually ahead though. He smiled early and he’s learning to do infant sign language.”
Roopchand said would like to urge other mothers to carry their babies to term whenever possible. Some mothers, who are tired of carrying their baby, may request that their physician deliver their baby early.
“It’s very difficult {having a preterm baby} and I don’t think that it was optimal for him to be born early,” shared Kelly. “I’d like to urge other mothers to carry their baby to term whenever possible.”
Researchers have found that babies born early may experience more learning and behavioral problems, are more likely to have trouble feeding, are more likely to have breathing problems, and are more likely to die of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome).
The final weeks in the womb may influence whether a baby survives and also determine how well the baby thrives.
(Wanda Curtis is a nurse and freelance writer who writes frequently about health and family-related issues.)
