Strollerderby

Wow, at first glance, this makes me depressed.  I weighed 5lbs 5oz at birth and my daughter weighed in at 5lbs 1oz when she was born and the reason for both of our birthweights PIH.  Makes me want to read the study though because I bet a lot of these effects being attributed to birth weight may actually correlate better to the socioeconomic situation of the mother's at the time of birth and during childhood.  Low-birthweights caused by diet or lack of prenatal care or other issues in low income women undoubtedly effect their children's overall health. Those of us who were low birthweight babies of middle class mothers' and became middle class mothers' of low birthweight babies may not doom our children to a sickly, unsuccessful fate.

Yeah, I hate studies like this. I was premature (3lbs 3 oz) and have always excelled in school and my professional and personal life. My daughter was born full term and totally healthy - at 5lbs 5oz. (She's now nine months old, 16 lbs, and hitting every milestone right on target - and has had one brief cold.) My grandmother was also small - at her tallest, she was 4' 10"! - and she had a brilliantly successful (middle class, like me) life. I agree with Mommychicky - what is the correlation between socioeconomic status, prenatal care, birthweight, and life success? Whatever. This is simply worry for worry's sake, don't you think?

I was 4 lbs when I was born.  Do you deliver those hugs or is it pick up only?

I just had to say this bc a lot of people assume that preemies are only born to uneducated women of lower socio-economic backgrounds who had no prenatal care (I'm not saying that you're saying this). And if you're looking at these women in general, maybe you're right.

I had an extremely premature baby (just a little over a pound) and I had excellent prenatal care, ate only the things the books told you to, etc etc. I know a lot of women who were in the same boat, and we hate the assumption that we didn't take care of ourselves or are uneducated. A lot of times the doctors don't even know why we gave birth prematurely, which is seriously depressing.

Most moms of extremely preemie babies are certainly aware of the possibilities of our babies' futures. We want the best for our kids.  But no matter what happens, being poorer or having more challenges  in life, doesn't necessitate an unhappy and horrible life.

Just seconding all the previous comments that other factors that contributed to the low birth weight might also contribute to the lower test scores, health problems, etc.

It's not that all babies who were premature are born to mothers without prenatal care or of lower socioeconomic status, but those factors also predispose people to giving birth prematurely and may continue to present risk factors for the child after birth (i.e., if your mother has a poor diet and untreated health problems during pregnancy, you are more likely to be born small *and* the continued exposure to poor diet and health problems after birth puts you at higher risk for the things mentioned).

I haven't read the study, but the conclusion seems to confuse correlation with causation.

I was born prematurely 36 years ago (4 lbs 13 oz) and have always done well academically, socially, and health wise. I attribute this both to my caring, involved parents and to luck.

I don't think studies like this are really helping any one, just contributing more to the prevailing 'blame the mother/baby incubator' mentality for everything.