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- Premature births are the direct cause for half of infants who die in the first month of life and 95% percent of those who are delivered before the 32nd week of pregnancy, according to the report in September 2006’s Journal of Pediatrics.
- Preterm birth accounts for 12.5% of all births in the US and 75% of the prenatal mortality and childhood disabilities.
- The average initial hospital cost for a premature newborn is over $78,000; for a healthy newborn, the cost averages $1,300! The average cost for a very low birth weight newborn is over $200,000!
- Preterm birth is the leading reason for extended NICU and associated PICU length of stays.
- African-American women had an average prematurity rate of 18.8% in Illinois in 2005.
- Preterm birth is not one disease for which there is likely to be one solution or cure.
- It consists of a complex cluster of problems with an interrelated set of factors that influence the outcome.
- This complexity makes detection of solutions difficult.
- Causes are multiple and vary for different populations.
- There is no “Silver Bullet”!