Late preterm babies,or babies born at 34 to 36 week’s gestation, are three times more likely to be diagnosed with cerebral palsy than those born full term at 37 weeks or later.
While being born just a few weeks early, these late preterm babies are significantly more likely to be diagnosed with developmental delays or mental retardation, according to the study of 141,321 children born at 30 weeks’ gestation or later. However, the results may underestimate the proportion of late preterm children with brain developmental problems because most of the children in the study had not yet entered school, where learning disabilities are more likely to be seen.
Because babies born 34 to 36 weeks are sometimes bigger than full-term infants, they appear to be healthy, and this may be part of the problem of diagnosing the children.
A Pocket Full of Rye movie full 007 Octopussy trailer
A threefold increase in cerebral palsy might not sound like much compared to the 70- or 80-fold increase in children born at 26 weeks. Still, that is still a large number of babies. About one in 11 live births in the US occurs between 34 and 36 weeks’ gestation–which is more than 370,000 live births per year.
The Texas cerebral palsy attorneys at Cappolino, Dodd & Krebs are here to seek justice for victims of negligent doctors and hospitals. If your child has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy or other serious birth defect, we urge you to seek professional insight today.
