Premature Babies Research Paper

The Blur of Having a Premature Baby In the United States, there are one in ten babies is born premature. It is important to know the complications of premature babies and how to try prevent having a preemie. “A premature birth is when a baby is born before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy. A full-term pregnancy is 40 weeks” ("Premature Babies." MedlinePlus.). Knowing a person that has had a premature baby makes knowing the possible affects interesting. Things that are good to know are health concerns, eye problems, coping with a premature baby as a parent, long term problems, and prevention of premature babies. Having a premature baby can come with a few or many health problems. When a baby is premature they will be held in the NICU, or the neonatal intensive care unit. One of the problems that can occur is Respiratory distress syndrome, (RDS). This is a common breathing problem that can occur in babies that are born 6 weeks or earlier. These babies lack surfactant, a protein that protects the lungs from collapsing. Another complication is BPD or bronchopulmonary dysplasia. This is another concern with the lungs and these babies usually need help from a breathing machine. Fluid and lung damage can happen when they have BPD (“Premature babies” March of Dimes.).
After knowing someone that has had a premature baby, it is a good topic to become knowledgable about. ROP is one of the health concerns that one of my family members has experienced this. My younger cousin was born 4 months early, and ROP was one problem she had. However, she had a good treatment. She is now ten years old, healthy, and has great vision. My cousin also has asthma, but just because she has this doesn’t stop her. She plays many sports, such as soccer and basketball. Both physically challenging sports. This shows that in the future premature babies can still be very