Premature Birth Rates Rise For Third Year In A Row

Moms.com

By Allison Cooper

Published Nov 3, 2018

This information coming from the report is crucial for parents and medical professionals to pay attention to.

Credit: iStock / Pixelistanbul

Despite the fact that there have been so many incredible advances in medicine in the past decades in the United States, many of which are in the realm of care when it comes to pregnancy and delivery, there is a new study sharing staggering results about the premature birth rate. The cold, hard fact is that while you might scroll through your Facebook feed and see your friends and family delivering healthy babies, overall, preterm birth rates are on the rise from 2016.

A study was just published by the nonprofit, The March of Dimes, called their 2018 Premature Birth Report Card, stating that the premature birth rate back in 2016 was at 9.85 and it is up to 9.93 percent in 2018. While it might seem like a small increase, this rise in percentage has both medical professional and parents very worries.

March of Dimes President, Stacey Steward shared that we must all come together to figure out a way to decrease this "alarming trend" and that every baby deserves the best start to life no matter what.

The report that was published by The March Of Dimes looked at data from the National Center for Health Statistics and analyzed it to come up with their results. Even though the outcome was incredibly alarming, they did find that Vermont’s high marks as the only state to receive an “A," which is promising. However, the overall results were disheartening, noting that the U.S. earned a “C” grade. This came from information such as 30 states having worse rates than last year and researchers finding that the risk of premature birth was up 50 percent for women of color, with the infant death rate of their babies up a shocking 130 percent.

This information coming from the report is crucial for parents and medical professionals to pay attention to because can lead to things such as mental health issues later on in life as well as behavioral problems and long-term disabilities.

So what exactly are to do as a country now that we have this data presented before us? March of Dimes outlines that many different programs need to be expanded on so that specific can be applied, improving both treatment of pregnant women and the health care system as a whole.