Preemies

The recent brouhaha caused by the CEO of AOL who complained about the high cost of birthing pre-mature babies has brought this issue into the news. It illustrates once again that technology is too far ahead of our laws and our thinking. Currently a baby born before 22 weeks has a ten percent chance of survival. For all 23-weekers, there is a great danger of illness and disability. A shocking 91 per cent of these babies will die in the first few weeks of life and never even leave hospital. Of the 9 per cent who survive, most are disabled. Many health professionals find the topic deeply uncomfortable Technology has increased the viability of all preemies except those at 22 weeks or less. This is the current limit of medical science. "In Sweden, Norway, Finland, they don't resuscitate a baby under 25 weeks. They say we're going to use that money for prenatal care," Muraskas says. "The economic thing, I have to say, can become a big issue. …As a country, people are starting to say, 'I don't know if we can afford this.' It takes a lot of money to deal with multiple problems." One of the reasons why these preemies survive is a chemical they inject that keeps the lungs from failing and with these so called micro-preemies they do not use this chemical and instead they wrap the baby in a blanket and lay it with the mother and wait for it to die. According to the nurse at Abbot Hospital in Minneapolis this generally happens within hours.