Preterm Birth
Preterm birth refers to the birth of babies who are
less than 37 weeks in the womb. It is commonly called premature birth. This is
the major cause of neonatal mortality in developed countries. That is
because they have high risk of death in the first year of life. They have
several health problems that occur in this period.
The most common problem is respiratory problem. That is
because lung is one of the last organs which develop in pregnancy. A common
respiratory problem for them is respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). According
to Martin J.A in Final Data for National Statistic Report, about 23.000 babies
a year, most of them are born before the 34th week of pregnancy,
suffer from this breathing problem. Babies with RDS lack a protein called
surfactant. It keeps small air-sac, alveolus, in the lungs from collapsing. Treatment
with surfactant helps them breathe more easily. However, the sickest baby needs
the help of a ventilator to breathe while their lungs mature.
Premature babies are
also in high risk of infection. That is because their immune has not mature
yet, so it is inefficient at fighting bacteria, viruses and other organisms
that can cause infection. Serious infections that commonly seen in premature
babies are pneumonia- lung infection, sepsis- blood infection and meningitis-
infection of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord.
The others problem are that
related to brain, vision, kidney and digestive system. They can get intra-ventricular
hemorrhage (IVH). It is a bleeding in the brain. It usually occurs in the first
3 days of life. Most of brain bleeds are mild and can resolve themselves. In
vision problem, there is retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). It is an
abnormal growth of blood vessels in the eye that can cause vision loss. The
disease in kidney is jaundice. It is inability to remove a waste product called
bilirubin from the blood. Jaundice is often mild and is not harmful. However,
if bilirubin concentration in blood is too high, it can cause brain damage. Necrotizing
enterocolitis (NEC) is happen in digestive system. It causes feeding
difficulties and abdominal swelling.
In short, premature
babies face a lot of dangerous things in their first year of life. They are in
high risk of death because of several health problems. It is a miracle of God
when they can live until they are adult and do not have any differences from
others.
