This unique comprehensive book offers families of late preterm infants a much needed resource. It contains: 1. A discussion about the hospital environment, care providers, and monitoring that may be needed; 2. A detailed account of medical issues that late preterm infants and their parents might encounter during their baby's hospital stay; 3. Pictures that help the reader have a clearer understanding of these medical issues; and 4. A dictionary with an explanation of commonly used medical terms.
The increasing prevalence of preterm birth in the United States is a complex public health problem that requires multifaceted solutions. Preterm birth is a cluster of problems with a set of overlapping factors of influence. Its causes may include individual-level behavioral and psychosocial factors, sociodemographic and neighborhood characteristics, environmental exposure, medical conditions, infertility treatments, and biological factors. Many of these factors co-occur, particularly in those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged or who are members of racial and ethnic minority groups. While advances in perinatal and neonatal care have improved survival for preterm infants, those infants who do survive have a greater risk than infants born at term for developmental disabilities, health problems, and poor growth. The birth of a preterm infant can also bring considerable emotional and economic costs to families and have implications for public-sector services, such as health insurance, educational, and other social support systems. Preterm Birth assesses the problem with respect to both its causes and outcomes. This book addresses the need for research involving clinical, basic, behavioral, and social science disciplines. By defining and addressing the health and economic consequences of premature birth, this book will be of particular interest to health care professionals, public health officials, policy makers, professional associations and clinical, basic, behavioral, and social science researchers.
Each year in the United States approximately 440,000 babies are born premature. These infants are at greater risk of death, and are more likely to suffer lifelong medical complications than full-term infants. Clinicians and researchers have made vast improvements in treating preterm birth; however, little success has been attained in understanding and preventing preterm birth. Understanding the complexity of interactions underlying preterm birth will be needed if further gains in outcomes are expected. The Institute of Medicine's Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine sponsored a workshop to understand the biological mechanism of normal labor and delivery, and how environmental influences, as broadly defined, can interact with the processes of normal pregnancy to result in preterm birth. This report is a summary of the main themes presented by the speakers and participants.
This volume analyses the distinct care needs of late preterm infants and their parents by reflecting on the best available evidence to inform practice and latest innovations in care. It addresses the spectrum of issues experienced by late preterm infants and their parents and ways to ensure healthy transitions from hospital to community. We define late preterm infants as those born between 340/7 to 366/7 weeks’ gestational age. The book uses creative writing prompts and a narrative style to gain insight and be self-reflection in and on practice to move the reader to embrace best practices. Issues such as mother’s physical and emotional health, father’s burden in postpartum period, the work organization of nurses caring for late preterm infants, feeding and jaundice which threaten readmission, and neurodevelopmental outcomes of late preterm infants are specifically addressed. Areas of innovation are shared for consideration to prompt readers to think about continuous improvement in quality of care. The book shares local and global perspectives to address the common concerns related to care of late preterm infants and their parents, and fosters a partnership in promoting health of late preterm infants and their parents all across the globe. It is intended for any health care providers such as nurses, midwives, physicians and other allied care professionals like health visitors, community health workers.
A latest edition of a best-selling reference features a new design and expanded information on the preschooler years, in a guide that covers topics ranging from infant care and food allergies to sleeping habits and autism. Original.
This splendid volume presents numerous aspects of preterm labor and delivery, from its fundamental mechanism to clinically focused approaches. The incidence of preterm delivery is 6-7% in Japan, while globally up to 10% of pregnancies with preterm labor result in premature delivery. The rates of overall survival and intact survival of the premature infants are also excellent in Japan. Thus Japan’s approach to preterm labor and delivery has long attracted attention. In each chapter, experts describe specific issues unique to conditions in Japan, including diagnosis, tocolytic agents, definition of clinical chorioamnionitis, treatment of bacterial vaginosis, role of amniocentesis, management of preterm premature membrane rupture and also placental pathology, presenting definitive evidence of the reduced incidence of preterm delivery in Japan. This book benefits not only obstetricians, pediatricians and gynecologist, but also midwives, nurse practitioners, and medical and associated staffs in the field of obstetrics, pediatrics, as well as neonatal and perinatal medicine who are involved in delivery.
