Talk:Premature birth

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I'm still new at Wiki, so I hope my changes were good clean wikifications (-: I reduced the major list and rearranged the article, using the ecology article as a template (I was trained in that field so it seemed like a good place to start). JoeBoucher 22:26, Jan 14, 2004 (UTC)

I went ahead and did the merge with Prematurity.Nandesuka 15:21, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Tasks for cleanup

This article has potential. The one thing I don't like is it's "laundry list" nature. It makes it hard to follow, and it's not very readable. I'd propose that the first thing we do is eliminate the laundry lists and replace them with well-written text. My overall goal is to make this article high-quality enough to merit being on the front page (it's clearly not there yet). Nandesuka 15:21, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] bacterial vaginosis and abortion

There was a recent row on Abortion#Physical_health over the status of evidence on a connection between abortion and premature birth. Also bacterial vaginosis was brought up as a factor, is that included under STD's? Just wondering if one or both should be added to the factors list. - RoyBoy 800 05:43, 11 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Regional definition?

I believe "defined medically as birth occurring earlier than 37 completed weeks of gestation" is the definition proposed by the WHO but some countries have a different, equally strict, definition. PhS 20:44, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] mortality rates?

Do we have any reliable mortality rates for premature babies?DonaNobisPacem 07:08, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Prematurity and the parent

The following needs to be edited: ""Additionally, parents often have difficulty becoming involved in their child's care because of the NICU setting. This affects the parents transition into parenthood because they are unable to fulfill their expected roles."

This seems very unscientific, and presupposes that that the premature birth is the first child for a couple ("transition into parenthood"). I recommend deleting or editing it.

65.31.132.187 08:49, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Lucky Preemies

Is there such a thing as a 'lucky preemie'? I mean to say, a baby who was born at least two months before scheduled with low birthweight (but not under 2600 grams) and yet this has no effect on him in any way? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Waux J.V. Trident (talk • contribs) 17:23, 6 December 2006 (UTC).

  • Wasn't Winston Churchill a preemie?

[edit] Sense of odor

Seeing that prematuirty might demage the babies hearing or vision, can it also influence their sense of odour? !NOSIGN! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 88.209.215.48 (talk) 10:25, 10 December 2006 (UTC).

[edit] Prematurity and periodontal disease

The evidence for a connection between prematurity and periodontal disease is not definitive. See this paper prepared by the March of Dimes http://www.marchofdimes.com/files/MP_PeriodontalDiseaseAndPretermBirth031004.pdf I plan to edit the article, but would appreciate feedback from other editors before proceeding. Thank you, marchbabies, February 2, 2007

I agree. The orginal sentence "Periodontal disease increases the risk of preterm birth more than 4 times. As a matter of fact this is one of the most serious risk factors, that is completely preventable." This seemed to me to be an editorial comment. I deleted everything except the Periodontal diease link. Some studies have suggested this but they vary considerably. Jeffjacks7 14:25, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Viability

While there is now a single well-documented case in the U.S. of an infant surviving at 21 weeks (see the article cited by RingTailedFox), viability is still generally thought to be at 23-24 weeks. The survival at 23 weeks in the best U.S. hospitals is around 15-20%. The survival at 22 weeks is still essentially 0%. As the article states, "if doctors had known Amillia's real gestational age, they might not have intervened. He said he thought she was at least 23 weeks, and doctors were shocked when the Taylors' fertility specialist pinpointed the exact date of fertilization. Fassbach cautioned against rushing to redefine the medical standards for fetus viability." Would change the sentence to "...betamethasone or dexamethasone, which are often given when the fetus approaches viability at 22-24 weeks."Hallbrianh 03:01, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 37 vs 37-41

It seems as if some people prefer to say that prematurity is defined as birth "earlier than 37-41 completed weeks of gestation" rather than simply "37 completed weeks". The problem I see with "37-41" is that it's ambiguous - 40 weeks is "earlier than 41", which is in the range 37-41 so someone could argue that 40 weeks is premature. Furthermore, why 41 as the upper range? why not 42, 50, 99 or 4826? All major sources say "< 37", they don't give a range. Ciotog 13:36, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Factors Section

I re-did the factors section, to try to eliminate the repeated sentences that were awkward or went into far too much detail on the cited references. However, am not happy with the results. It might be better to get away from the lists, but needs to have more text than simply stating essentially 'factor X increases the risk of preterm delivery'. Also, the references contain hyperlinks that are not accessible by those who do not have special access to the web resource. This still needs significant revision.Hallbrianh 21:48, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

I really don't like the laundry list at all; whenever possible we should be moving away from adding those, not adding more of them. Rather than just revert it, I figured I'd bring it up here. Would you like to take a crack at rewriting that section again so that the laundry list is a textual paragraph (or two?) Nandesuka 01:35, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Records section

I've removed the names of minors from the records section. All statements are sourced and the sources give the names, should anyone need them. The general principle here is to avoid this article appearing in search results on the minor's name in his or her future (hopefully very successful) life. --Tony Sidaway 23:36, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Babson and Benda chart and update to it

Would a suitable addition to this article be a description of the role of the Babson and Benda growth graph for preterm infants and the recent revisions to this graph from increased sample sizes? I came in contact with this information while examining the top-cited papers at BioMed Central. The second most cited manuscript across the history of this resource as of 2007-12-21 (>101,000 accesses) is:

Fenton, Tanis R (2003-12-16). "A new growth chart for preterm babies: Babson and Benda's chart updated with recent data and a new format". BMC Pediatrics 3 (13). BioMed Central. doi:10.1186/1471-2431-3-13. PMID 14678563. “The Babson and Benda 1976 "fetal-infant growth graph" for preterm infants is commonly used in neonatal intensive care. ... The purpose of this study was to develop an updated growth chart beginning at 22 weeks based on a meta-analysis of published reference studies.” 

Thanks for considering this. I am not a physician myself, so I would prefer to leave the integration of this information to someone with experience in the area. --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 20:22, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Magnesium sulfate

I added an intriguing news report (from a recent conference) that simple administration of magnesium sulfate can cut cerebral palsy in half - in case I forget, the media report should be supplemented with the proper scientific citation once it becomes available. Also, I've omitted mention of geophagy because any link with it needs proof, but it will be something interesting to watch for. Wnt (talk) 17:45, 1 February 2008 (UTC)