Preterm babies are fragile creatures. With their lungs underdeveloped and their internal organs too small to function at their best, every breath ofa preterm baby is a truly remarkable miracle. But miracles come with a big price and studies had shown premature babies are more likely to develop asthma.
A preterm baby is a baby born before 37 weeks of gestation, often too small to survive. However, modern technology and neonatal highly specialized doctors can help a newborn survive and grow to a proper size. But the “pocket baby†is still susceptible to develop asthma and other breathing problems.
Scary Facts
The mere use of artificial breathing can cause respiratory distress issues later in life. And with an increasing rate of incidental preterm birth with surviving kids, asthma had become one of most frequent chronic diseases in children. An estimated 11% of all babies are now born preterm and are prone to respiratory diseases. The earlier a baby is born, the grater is the risk to develop asthma and babies born two months earlier than the due date are three times more prone to chronic respiratory issues.
Statistical Records on Asthma develop-issue on Preterm Babies
Researchers conducted a number of studies on more than 1 million preterm babies with birth-dates between 1990 and present, and came up with an astonishing result: preterm babies are 50% more likely to develop asthma. The risk does not decrease with the age, as school-age kids still remain susceptible to asthma.
The patient’s information came from different continents, but most of them came from Europe. This proves the asthma risk in preterm babies is a world-wide problem, not a localized issue. So the search for understanding the leading process and coming up with a prevention method is crucial and should involve medical scientists from all over the world.
Stay Away from Smoking When Pregnant
What can a mother do to prevent her newborn from developing asthma? Not much, unfortunately other than choosing a healthy lifestyle.
Further studies have shown a connection between smoking mothers and preterm asthmatic babies. If the pregnant woman is exposed to active or even passive tobacco smoking, the risk to give birth to an asthmatic preterm baby increases. Other means to ensure a healthy newborn are to stay active, avoid excessive weight gain during pregnancy and avoid stress.
Even if doctors now know there is a connection between preterm birth and asthma, they still don’t know the exact connection, so they can’t recommend a certain anti-asthma remedy. For every pregnant woman this means that she needs to take care of herself and avoid any tobacco smoke exposure in order to deliver a healthy full-term baby.
