Nearly $14 billion is spent annually in the United States for medical treatment of premature babies, about half the total cost of all hospital charges for infants. And the costs don’t stop at birth.
“There are acute problems for the babies, but there are also lifelong problems, especially for those born less than 32 weeks (gestation),” said obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Alane Haney-Russell. She was one of several presenters Wednesday at a Prematurity Summit in Fort Wayne sponsored by the March of Dimes.
The best nutrition a baby can have is human milk, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Mother’s milk is especially important to preemies, whose fragile neuro-cognitive development is still a work in progress. “With human milk there is improved developmental outcomes,” said Donna Miracle, clinical coordinator of Indiana’s only human milk bank. Research has shown in premature infants, there is a 50 percent lower infection rate in those receiving breast milk rather than formula and a 21 percent lower mortality rate, Miracle said.
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