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The number of premature births has been increasing in the U.S last year. This is the first time in the last eight years when this happens. No matter how hard people try to avoid them. premature births are happening and their numbers are increasing. In 2015 there were 2000 premature births more than in 2014 which means that from 9.57% in 2014 there were 9.63% preterm births in 2015.
What are premature births?
A premature or preterm birth is when a child is born before 36 weeks of pregnancy. This can cause a lot of problems for the children like neurological disorders. Babies that are born prematurely can be blind, have developments delays and hearing problems. This is the largest cause of infantile deaths.
The report that was presented by the March of Dimes has shown that preterm births happen more often when it comes to racial minorities. Nobody knows exactly why they experience this problem more often than others. In the U.S there are 7 states in which the rate of premature births has been higher than in 2014. Idaho, New Mexico, Arkansas, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Connecticut are those states. Other 4 states had the lowest rate of preterm births. New Hampshire, Oregon, Washington, and Vermont are the states that had the preterm rate of 8% or lower.
The March of Dimes gave different ratings from A to F. The U.S got a C rating which is alright but can be improved. In order to make this report researchers used data from the National Center for Health Statistics. After that, they gave ratings for every state and made an average nationwide.
This report was made in order to lower the rate of preterm birth in the future. In the last 6 years, things have evolved because in 2010 the U.S was in the middle of the report after countries like Afghanistan and Somalia. Now the U.S is lowering the rate of premature births but it is not enough. The goal is that by 2020 the U.S should have a rate of 8.1% in order to among the countries that have low rates of premature births.
If the numbers of preterm births will decrease, there will be more healthy babies and less money spent on helping children with problems. Let’s hope that the technological and medical developments will help us decrease this rate.
Image source: Wikipedia
