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Low Birth Weight Babies
Causes, Concerns and Outcomes
By Kelly Burgess
According to the March of Dimes, low birth weight affects about one in every 13 babies born each year in the United States and is a factor in about 65 percent of infant deaths. These babies generally have more health issues as newborns and may face long-term disability or developmental issues. Sometimes those problems can be serious, and include cerebral palsy, mental retardation, learning disabilities and impairment of sight, hearing or lung function.
From a public health standpoint, the medical needs, both short and long term, of low birth weight babies can impart a high cost on society. A 2004 study commissioned by the National Bureau of Economic research found that the expected costs of delivery and initial care of a baby weighing 1,000 grams at birth can exceed $100,000. Even for babies weighing 2,000 to 2,100 grams, an additional pound of weight is associated with a $10,000 difference in hospital charges for inpatient services. Those figures do not include long-term care for serious disability or developmental issues.
In the past 25 years, according to Dr. Siva Subramanian, professor of pediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology and chief of neonatal/perinatal medicine at Georgetown University Hospital, there has been a 30 percent rise in the incidence of premature births, a number he calls "epidemic."
"The Institute of Medicine has directed the NIH [National Institutes of Health], CDC [Centers for Disease Control] and state governments to focus on this major problem and put more money into research in the causes of prematurity to support those babies with developmental and educational needs," Dr. Subramanian says. "In particular, they need to focus on five major areas: environmental, medical, in-vitro fertilization (IVF), racial-ethnic and low socioeconomic disparities and prenatal care."
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