There are multiple support groups for parents of premature babies. Ask the social worker in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Prematurity was formerly a major cause of infant deaths. Improved medical and nursing techniques have increased the survival of premature infants. A greater chance of survival is associated with increasing length of the pregnancy. Of babies born at 28 weeks, approximately 80% survive.

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Prematurity is not without long-term effects. A large proportion of premature infants have medical problems that persist into childhood or are permanent. As a rule, the more premature an infant, and the smaller the birth weight, the greater the risk of complications. It must be stressed, however, that it is impossible to predict the long-term outcome for an individual baby merely on the basis of gestational age or birth weight.

Possible complications include:

• Hyaline membrane disease (respiratory distress syndrome)
• Bleeding into the brain (intraventricular hemorrhage)
• Retinopathy and associated visual loss or blindness
• Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD)
• Heart disease
• Severe intestinal inflammation (necrotizing enterocolitis)
• Jaundice
• Infection or septicemia
• Anemia
• Low blood glucose (hypoglycemia)
• Delayed growth and development
• Mental-motor retardation

Call your health care provider if you are pregnant and believe you are going into labor prematurely.

If you are pregnant, and not receiving prenatal care, call your health care provider or the State Department of Health. Most Health Departments have programs to ensure that pregnant mothers, whether covered by insurance or not, able to pay or not, receive adequate prenatal care. They will direct you to the appropriate provider.