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A new study finds that aiming to wait just 60 seconds to clamp the umbilical cord of very premature babies at birth continues to have benefits two years on - decreasing the child's risk of death or major disability. The new study compared outcomes with caregivers aiming for 60 second delay in clamping and with caregivers aiming for cord clamping before 10 seconds after delivery. Researchers found that delaying clamping reduces a child's relative risk of death or major disability in early childhood by 17 percent. This included a 30 percent reduction in mortality before the age of two. In...

Why, now that doctors can do so much with advancements in modern medicine, are they turning their backs on the patients who need them most, and saying it’s for their own good? A terminally ill child’s death should not be determined by a panel of doctors and a judge. Parents should have a say in the decision to maintain life-extending care. But in Texas, Fourth District Court of Appeals Chief Justice Sandee Bryan Marion went along with the determination of doctors at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth to pull life support from 11-month-old Tinslee Lewis, despite her family’s...

VANCOUVER, Canada, October 26, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An article appearing in this month’s edition of the Journal of Reproductive Medicine concludes that nearly 32 per cent of “very-preterm” U.S. births, that is, before 32 weeks gestation, are due to the mother having had a prior abortion. This information, combined with previous research in the relation between low birth weight children and cerebral palsy (CP), results in an estimated 1,096 children suffering from CP because of their mother’s prior abortion.  The 2002 data examines 4,021,726 births, 4,021,726 preterm babies and 72,751 very-preterm babies. The study’s authors, with the Reduce Preterm Risk...

Pregnant with her first child, Kandice Odom was feeling stressed. "My feet were swollen, I would get dizzy easily and it was hard for me to focus or concentrate," recalled the 22-year-old Jersey City resident. Then, after a routine doctor's visit into her sixth month of pregnancy, things got a lot more complicated. Odom's blood pressure was dangerously high and she was immediately referred to high-risk specialists at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center. A decision ultimately was made to deliver her baby by Caesarean section. Simone Marie Gilliard was born June 24 weighing just 2 pounds. "She was so small....

Premature babies experience real pain rather than just displaying reflex reactions, scientists said yesterday.Brain scans carried out on premature babies during blood tests showed surges of blood and oxygen in the sensory areas of their brains - demonstrating that pain was being processed. Previous research had shown that even the youngest newborns are capable of showing the behavioural signs of pain but it had been unclear whether these were simply bodily reflexes. Prof Maria Fitzgerald, from the department of anatomy and developmental biology at University College London, who led the team, said: "We have shown for the first time that...

BRITAIN’S top medical ethics expert has urged doctors to let the most premature babies die, with treatment offered only in exceptional cases. Baroness Warnock believes Britain should follow Holland in setting an age limit below which babies would not routinely be resuscitated. She says this would prevent doctors competing for the “triumph” of keeping babies alive at increasingly young ages even though they may not survive in the long term or may be left severely disabled. Warnock’s comments were backed in part by Britain’s most senior paediatrician, who said the setting of a lower limit should be considered. In Holland,...

Feb. 20, 2004, 10:39AM Tomball baby one of nation's tiniest ever By ROSANNA RUIZ Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle RESOURCES • 'The Tiniest Babies' registry: Developed by the University of Iowa. Most parents consider the birth of their children a miracle. For the Walpoles, that may not be a stretch. The combined weight of Dodie and Vaughn Walpole's twin girls, born Feb. 11 about two months prematurely, was less than 4 pounds. Dodie Walpole, 29, gave birth by Caesarean section to Trinity and Kylie. Trinity weighed 2.8 pounds at birth, and Kylie was 12 ounces, making her one of the tiniest...