How common is preterm birth?
One in every eight babies born in the US is preterm so that in 2002, more than 480,000 babies were born too early. Unfortunately the problem is getting worse not better. In fact the rates of preterm birth have increased 29% over the last 20 years, going from 9.4% in 1981 to 12.1% in 2002.2 But despite this increase, only about 1/3 of women think premature birth is common and serious. In a national survey, 31% of pregnant women felt that preterm birth is an extremely or very serious problem in the U.S.3 However, pregnant African-American women were almost twice as likely as white women to call the problem “extremely” or “very” serious (52% versus 29%). Perhaps, they are more aware, since African-American mothers give birth too soon about twice as often as white mothers.
Since a pregnancy should last about 40 weeks, if your baby is born three weeks or more before the expected date of delivery (or before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy), it is considered premature or preterm. Babies born between 37 and 42 weeks of pregnancy are full term and those born after 42 weeks are post term.
Babies born too early or too late are more likely to have serious problems than babies born on time. About 2/3 of babies born too early or preterm are also born too small or low birthweight which means they weigh less than 5 ½ lbs.
Infants who are born the earliest and the smallest seem to suffer the most problems such as blindness, hearing loss, breathing problems, mental retardation, cerebral palsy, and even death.