Cande Ananth, a resident of West Windsor and director of the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, has come to the conclusion that not all premature births are bad and that statistics demonstrate conclusively that many such births save babies from being stillborn.##M:[more]##
His review of studies he performed over the last two years with Anthony Vintzileos, M.D., chair of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at RWJMS, was published in the December, 2006, issue of the Journal of Maternal-Fetal and Neonatal Medicine.
Ananth, a member of the RWJMS faculty for close to 12 years, examined the highly detailed database of all single births in the United States between 1989 and 2000 — more than 46 million babies in all.
According to a press release, he was intrigued to find that the data showed the rate of perinatal death (stillbirth or deaths within the first month after birth) declined more than 25 percent during the 1989 to 2000 period — even though the rate of premature births increased during the same period. He realized that the types of premature births had changed resulting from the increasing willingness of doctors to induce labor or perform a Caesarean section when serious issues are discovered with the mother’s or fetus’ health.
“Why keep bashing preterm births if physicians are doing something good?” says Ananth. “In terms of preventing death, it’s a success.” Nevertheless, he agrees with the overall goal of preventing premature births, which still have potential consequences for a child’s lifelong health.
Ananth, Vintzileos, and their research team also found that if a woman gives birth to her first child prematurely, whether on her own or with medical intervention, she is likely to give birth to her second child prematurely as well. The question of why will be a subject of future research by Ananth and Vintzileos.
