Word: birthweight
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...home births is at least twice the national average, due both to Oregon's culturally liberal leanings as well as its wide rural stretches, which can make hospitals hard to reach. (From 1998 to 2003, parts of the state also had higher than average rates of premature and low-birthweight babies, leading some critics to conclude that midwifery was partly to blame.) Cheyney and doctoral student Courtney Everson examined one county's birth records from the entirety of that period and found that in that area at least, there was not any increased mortality risk associated with low-risk home...
...news is good. The rates of infant mortality and low-birthweight babies both ticked up, a bad-health bellwether that always catches the eye of epidemiologists. "As a pediatrician, I can tell you that this is a major cause of concern," says Alexander. It's possible that the reason is merely better prenatal care that's enabling more sickly babies to survive through birth but not a great deal longer...
SMOKING MOMS Pregnant teens are smoking more than they were five years ago, despite reductions in all other age groups. Among expectant 18- and 19-year-olds, a disturbing 1 in 5 smokes. They appear either unaware of or unconcerned by possible links to low birthweight, retardation and behavioral problems in their unborn child's later life...
THIS disparity between high costs and low benefits partly exists because of a profound bias towards institutional health care in this country. Expensive neonatal hospital units which miraculously save the lives of low birthweight babies are rewarded with glamorous news stories and bigger budgets. In contrast, less popular residential clinics which deliver prevention-oriented prenatal care are massively underfunded...
...recent study by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) indicated that an investment in prenatal care for those who cannot afford it would save hundreds of infant lives, prevent hundreds more from being born with low birthweight, and avoid thousands of dollars in neonatal care expenditures. Prenatal care pays for itself four times over...
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