Babies who weight 5.5 pounds (2500grams) or less at birth are low babies with low birth weight. Babies weighing 3.3 pounds (1500 grams) or less are Very low birth weight babies. There is a significant medical and social cost for low birth weight infants and preterm births. Low birth weight is a major predictor of infant mortality. Ethnic and cultural group’s disparities related to low birth weight infant and preterm infant are significantly disproportionate, affecting minority Americans. Although infant morbidity can not be directly linked with low birth weight but it is a frequently used as a marker for poor health at birth because it amounts for the leading risk factor for infant morbidity and for subsequent mortality among the surviving infants. The extent of which ethnic and cultural disparities in low birth weight reflect socioeconomic inequalities, cigarette smoking during pregnancy, young maternal age and low educational achievements are also associated with low birth weights. The hospital costs for low birth weight infants during the first year of life in 2001 totaled $5.8 billion, representing forty-seven percent of all infant hospitalizations costs and twenty seven percent of all pediatric hospital costs. Even if the infant’s family has insurance, the co pay amount is significantly large, if we include cost of travel, lodging, food, time off from work and loss of productivity; it is very expensive and unaffordable for the society and the families. Pre term births increase a child risk for health and developmental problems. Pre term births less than thirty seven weeks of gestation is associated with poor health and social/emotional functioning measured at preschool age, adolescence and young adulthood. Less than 29 weeks of gestation age infants are at risk of increased impaired brain function due to brain injury and disruptions in early brain development. Low birth weight is also linked to various problems in infants, including : chronic conditions such…
Normally, when people think of nurse who are not familiar with health care careers, think of someone who takes care of the elderly or with adults in the hospital. What many people don’t know that there are several different kinds of nurses in the medical field. Personally, I would love to be a neonatal nurse.…
According to The Premature Infant Advocacy Resource Guide, in the United States, 11.5% of births are preterm and such infants require special attention and care. Neonatal nurses provide the much-needed care for infants that are born without proper functions that will allow them to live a healthy life. Neonatal nurses specialize in many different types of care in order to help these particular infants. Units of care for infants range from premature development problems to serious respiratory and digestive problems. There are specific neonatal nurses that specialize in intensive care units in hospitals to take care of infants immediately after birth (NICU).…
The primary diagnosis of my patient is prematurity, she was born at 36 weeks and is considered a late preterm infant. Late preterm infants are at an increased risk for early death and long- term health problems when compared with infants who are born full term (Alden, 2012, p. 780). Late preterm are also at greater risk for complications such as respiratory distress and are more likely to be hospitalized longer and require intensive care. In addition, preterm infants are at risk because their organ systems are immature and they lack adequate reserves for bodily nutrients (Alden, 2012, p. 896).…
of 1 to 12 months & third leading cause overall of infant mortality in US…
If you think the first trimester is the hardest part of pregnancy due to the morning sickness you experienced, think again. You were just getting started.…
Many may think we are born to be sociable or how to understand our emotions. But to be honest we are not. As early as infancy in it vital for child care teachers to groomed infants to socialize with others. Lack of social skills infants can grow up to live a lonely life in adulthood. This is the same for emotions if infants are not taught to deal with their emotions at an early age they can live a life of confusion. Infants need opportunities to develop a sense of self, a sense of self, with others, and a sense of self-regulation. When developing a sense of self-regulation infants begin to respond nonverbally and with vocalizations to acknowledge that they see an image of themselves. Teachers can place unbreakable mirrors on the ground or low enough on a wall that the infant can see it…
Preterm and low birth weight infants possess greater risk not only for the infants, but also for the families and the society as well. The impact of very low-birth-weight infants on the family is long lasting. Preterm infants born at less than 34 weeks are at high risk for poor outcomes, including chronic health conditions, long-term disability, and death. The loss of a baby can be a devastating experience for a family. Many preterm and low birth weight infants that survive the perinatal period are vulnerable to a host of childhood morbidities such as cerebral palsy, chronic lung disease, and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Adolescents born prior to 35 weeks of completed gestation have been shown to have a higher degree of abnormal brain development and cognitive and behavioral problems than adolescents born full-term. These poorer birth outcomes have also been associated with serious health conditions in adulthood, such as cardiovascular disease, Type II diabetes, and hypertension. The financial costs associated with treating preterm labor and delivery is quite…
As a result, low birth weight infants are frequently re-hospitalized due to various neonatal morbidities such as bronchopulmonary dysplasia, posthemorrhagic hydrocephalus,…
Sudden infant syndrome has been on research for a long time, where by it ca be back traced to the year 1969 though no clear causes of the syndrome have not been identified. Its unpredictability has been there for long despite years of research. This research will educate the reader mostly parents, on understanding sudden infant syndrome, risk factors and ways of prevention. Through major campaigns reduction of sudden infant syndrome has been noted and this research is going to focus on some of practices which can reduce its occurrence.…
In the United States, approximately two-thirds of infant deaths occur within the first month after the infant is born. This is due in large to low birth weight (LBW). The World Health Organization (WHO) has defined low birth weight as, weight of less than 2500g (up to and 2499g regardless of gestational age) , preterm birth weight (PTB)is defined as, the birth of an infant less than 37 weeks and extremely low birth weight(ELBW) is birth weight less than 1000 g . Low birth weight, extremely low birth weight and preterm birth have all been associated with poor health in infants and/ or poor health of the mothers and there are several factors that signify the fate of African American infants.…
Now a day a major concern which is affecting communities on overall pertaining to childbirth is preterm births in the United States of America. In fact, preterm births and low birth weight have negative consequences not only for the infants and their families but also on the society. Actual delivery before 37 weeks of gestation is the primary concern and low birth weights have a major impact on the functional domains, such as cerebral palsy, chronic lung disease, and hyperactivity disorder (Brooks-Gunn J., McCarton C. M., Casey P. H., McCormick M. C., Bauer C. R., Bernbaum J. C., Tonascia J. (1994).…
When my twin brother and I were born three months premature the doctors told my parents to expect the worst. No one belived we would live very long and if we did we would have a long road a head of us. We shocked everyone by living. Today nither one of us has any long term affects of being born premature. Through out school I worked extremly hard. When I was in fifth grade I could barely read, and relized something had to change. With the support of my parents with in two years I was reading above my grade level. I later won awards for reading a million words in one school year. My learning dysablility made school challenging for me but, no impossible. My learning dysabliltiy taught me to work extremly hard to achive my goals and to never give…
For the last 20 years, thanks to advances in neonatal technology, doctors were able to save babies whose time spent in the womb had to be shortened because of particular problems. Those preterm childbirth also seem to pose a problem of low-birth weight among the babies conceived with the help of neonatal technologies. Low birthweight is a weight of less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces, low birth weight can cause heart & respiratory diseases as well as mental retardation. It is said that advances in neonatal technology, which in turn often lead to earlier deliveries have contributed to the increases of low birth weight babies.…
In the third study medical and demographic characteristics where analyzed among infants that were 24 to 32 weeks gestation weighing 500 to 2500 grams of SIDS victims and non SIDS victims. The researchers attempted to find a correlation between the two groups of preterm…