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• Preemie to Pediatrician

  Imagine how proud you’d be if your child excelled in school, worked hard and achieved their goal of an important career. And now imagine that 30 years ago that baby was born 12 weeks early and left for dead, covered up by a nurse who thought his heart had stopped beating long before birth only to hear him make some noises and see his foot move. And that he worked hard to overcome the disabilities that caused as he grew, finally graduating from medical school and becoming a pediatrician. That’s what happened for Lisa Dalton and her son Jeremy. When he was born, doctors told her there was little hope of survival, and even if he did live he’d be unable to ever walk, talk or feed himself. But the little baby showed them otherwise and continued... Read More... Posted Feb 24 2009, 10:31 AM by Amy Kuras with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: NICU, preemies, cerebral palsy, Hallmark, premature babies, born too soon, Lisa Dalton, Dr. Thelma Sutter, Dr. Jeremy Dalton, heartwarming

• Is the Economy Shrinking Your Sperm Count?

  It's pure speculation, the writer notes, but he's making the suggestion anyway: a slowing economy is causing a bit of a baby bust in the U.S. Now, that seems reasonable -- more kids, more expense. And historically, low birth rates have preceded baby booms (think Depression, WWII). But what evidence is there that we're cutting back on kids in order to save a few bucks (or the house)? After all, in 2006, the fertility rate was 2.1 kids per woman -- more than ample to stave off a population decline.   Read More... Posted May 30 2008, 04:32 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: baby boom, NICU, Pediatrix Medical Group, housing bust, birth dearth, baby bust

• Calculating a Preemie's Chances

  Perhaps I am crazily neurotic about pregnancy (umm, probably a little more than perhaps) but 25 weeks -- aka viability -- was a really big milestone for me in both pregnancies. That's the point when, if a baby is born that early, they have an excellent chance of surviving. But more than 40,000 babies are born every year earlier still, at 22 to 25 weeks. Researchers have devised a new calculator to help doctors and parents decide how much treatment to give these very tiny infants. Read More... Posted Apr 17 2008, 05:06 PM by Amy Kuras with | with no comments Filed under: premature birth, NICU, New York Times, viability

• Maternity Leave and Sick Newborns

  Here's the Sophie's Choice of parental leave: use up all your leave time to be with your preemie newborns at the hospital or save it for after they get home? A federal employee in Washington, D.C., had to make that decision and wound up going back to work two weeks (two weeks!) after giving birth.   Read More... Posted Mar 12 2008, 04:03 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: newborns, NICU, preemies, Washington Post, maternity leave, family medical leave act, family leave laws

• A Drug to Delay Labor May Harm Babies

  Okay. Say you're pregnant, pretty pregnant but it's not quite a good hatching time yet, and you go into labor. Not the story we hope for, but it happens, right? And then you get drugs that stop the labor while everyone watches you like a lab rat under a microscope to see if labor starts up again. The goal is to stay in this limbo long enough so that when you do finally have to succumb to labor, your baby's got a good chance of being healthy. A nightmare, if you ask me, but then again, I'm a wimp. I know women go through this all the time. But here's the problem: one of the drugs commonly used to put labor on hold, magnesium sulfate, is bad for babies! Not to mention the moms! (The other common drug used for this, nifedipine, seems to be better.) That's right, magnesium sulfate causes "respiratory depression and bowel dysfunction in infants" and a more common and longer NICU stay, and causes shortness of breath and fluid-filled lungs (which could lead to pneumonia, not exactly what you're looking for in pregnancy) in moms. Read More... Posted Jul 04 2007, 10:52 AM by Karen Murphy with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: health, pregnancy, moms, NICU, pre-term labor, magnesium sulfate, epsom salt, dubious drugs

• Trading Spaces: Nurses Try "Preemie For a Day"

  Ever wonder what it's like to be a tiny, vulnerable newborn?  Some nurses in Illinois are finding out with an innovative new program that allows them to experience some of the abrupt changes that take place for the tiniest babies in the moments after their birth. The nurses are learning to better simulate the soothing world of the womb for preemies in the days following their birth so that they can weather the transition from a warm and relatively quiet uterus to the bustling world of the NICU.  Nurses drink from bottles and suck on pacifiers after having lain in a fetal position to simulate some of the sensory input a preemie experiences.  (I am wondering if there aren't some nutjobs out there who would pay serious money to see this?) This sounds like a good attempt and is probably the best we can really do to simulate a baby's experience but I have to wonder if it is even possible to remotely understand everything that's going on within a tiny baby during those days. Posted Mar 01 2007, 06:17 PM by Karen Murphy with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: birth, hospitals, babies, NICU, preemies, nurses