Waiting. In our daily lives, we greet it with frustration, and even irritation. But when it comes to childbirth, the time we spend waiting can affect whether a child is born healthy, or not, and sets a baby on a path toward lifelong health.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently launched an important initiative, Strong Start, to prevent premature births, a public health problem that costs society an estimated $26 billion a year. That initiative aims to improve prenatal care for pregnant women, but its focus is also on curbing the unsafe practice of scheduling elective, medically unnecessary deliveries before the 39 week mark.
That's an important step, but more must be done to reduce the threat posed by elective deliveries of healthy babies before 39 weeks, which often are scheduled for reasons that have more to do with convenience than with health.
More than half a million infants are born prematurely in the United States each year, a number that has increased 36 percent since the early 1980s. We also know that 25 percent of those births are due to early elective deliveries -- either by inducing labor early, or by scheduling a cesarean section.
That's a dangerous trend that continues, despite a growing body of scientific studies that indicate that babies born before the 39 week mark run a high risk of underdeveloped organs, infections and other health problems that can lead to disabling conditions that can last a lifetime.
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