Every year, more than one in every ten babies born is premature. Furthermore, of these over 15 million births, an estimated one million die of complications, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The agency clearly emphasized that if there are proper access and provision of quality care and medicines during both post-natal and prenatal periods, three quarters of these babies can be spared. Among children below 5 years old, premature birth has been listed to be the leading cause of mortality. Meanwhile, if these babies survive, they are most likely to live with lifelong defects like learning, visual and hearing disabilities if no proper treatment is sought.
Premature birth is a global problem. In a report by the WHO, reports reveal that over 60 percent of births before 37 weeks are recorded in Africa and South Asia. While holding the record of the most number of cases is Malawi in a 2012 report entitled "Born Too Soon: The Global Action Report on Preterm Birth." Even United States was marked a mediocre score as per the March of Dimes' assessment.
Voice of America reports that the March of Dimes has released a "roadmap" to help aims to reduce preterm birth cases. It advices that women should observe at least an 18-month gap between one child to the next pregnancy to allow the body to recover. Other recommendations include the following: group prenatal care; smoking cessation before and during pregnancy; avoiding elective deliveries before 39 weeks of gestation; undergoing progesterone treatment for those who suffered previous preterm birth and who have short cervices; and prevention of multiple births through best fertility treatment compliance.
In observance of the World Prematurity Day (Nov. 17) around the globe, different establishments switched their lights to purple, which signifies the color both of the March of Dimes, an international organization that aims to ensure healthy and timely birth, and of the World Prematurity Day. New York's Empire State Building, Turkey's Bosophorus Bridge and Germany's Heidelberg Castle all lighted purple also. Moreover, several organizations conducted health teachings on possible dangers that prematurity may pose to newborns.
