One of the nation’s most alarming health crises is the growing number of babies born before week 37 of pregnancy.  The increase in these preterm live births is behind federal law PL 109-450, or the PREEMIE Act of 2006, which authorizes research and education into the causes and effects of premature birth.  On behalf of this act, an extensive study of almost 7 million live births in the United States has revealed that babies born early are at significantly higher risk of being born with major birth defects than babies born at full term.

Researchers from several major medical institutions, including the March of Dimes and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), joined forces to evaluate the state of health of all babies born in 13 states from 1995 to 2000, which is a representative sample of about 30% of all births in the US for that time.

The research team’s findings reveal that babies born prematurely are at more than double the risk of being born with major birth defects than full-term babies.  Of the preterm births, almost 8% of the infants were born with a birth defect and more than 500,000 are born prematurely every year, with the number of preterm births rising every year.  The two leading causes of death in infants are premature births and birth defects.

Margaret Nonein, PhD, MPH, says the cause of most birth defects remains unknown but most of them are thought to be related to a combination of environmental and genetic risk factors.  Identifying these exact risk factors is the subject of major research in the US, where premature births and the defects associated with them are priorities in the public health system.  Nonein is affiliated with the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities for the CDC and the lead author of this study.

Central nervous system birth defects, including spina bifida, and cardiovascular defects that include a hole in the heart are two of the most common defects found in premature births, with the babies born earliest experiencing a higher risk of having them.  Babies born between the 24th and 31st weeks of pregnancy, considered very preterm babies, are five times more likely to be born with a major defect than babies born at full term.

Full details of the study have been published in this week’s edition of the Maternal and Child Health Journal.  The PREEMIE Act established a Surgeon General’s Conference to share data on premature births between public and private sources.  The conference will be held in June of this year.

Source: March of Dimes Foundation