How deaths after premature births can be avoided

It is difficult enough to bring a baby who is full term into the world. For babies who are premature, caring for them is no less important, but can be difficult as well. However, modern medicine is enabling more pre-term babies to survive. However, pre-term births are still extremely dangerous. According to medicalnewstoday.com, about one in four extremely premature births results in the death of a newborn.

The problem is particularly visible with infants born between 22 and 28 weeks. Babies this young are at risk of death even with hospital supervision. However, with every additional week that a baby can grow inside its mother’s womb, the mortality risks decrease upon birth.

Nevertheless, researchers found that several things can help in avoiding deaths after a premature birth. First, having more prenatal care could help in identifying ailments that could threaten the baby. Second, decreasing the use of prenatal antibiotics, and third the increased use of C-sections have all helped in reduce the number of premature babies falling victim to diseases that lead to death.

As we have noted in a number of our posts, physicians, nurses and other medical personnel have a duty to use reasonable care when caring for expectant mothers and unborn babies. Part of this duty includes advising the birth mother of when things could go wrong and call for a baby to be born before it has reached a proper gestational age.

If a doctor fails to use such care and it results in a baby losing its life, the doctor could be held liable.