Premature births in Washington shooting up

“The rate of premature births is climbing in the United States, with Washington's rise among the steepest in the nation,” shooting up about 30 percent in the last ten years, reports the Seattle Times. Who knew? Why Washington? I can’t imagine, and want to hear more.

There’s lots more that’s intriguing in the article, including this: “Breast-feeding premature babies within the first hour of birth boosts their survival, as does skin-to-skin contact.” And yet I know that these are not the practices of our local hospitals, including the hospital with one of the busiest birth units, which touts itself as Seattle's state-of-the-art place to give birth—Swedish First Hill. A woman I know who was trying to breastfeed her premature infant there was told by a nurse that a premature baby uses more calories trying to breastfeed than she takes in, so why bother. She was also told that breastfeeding, even holding the baby, would “overstimulate” and tire the baby.

(And by the way, speaking of birthing practices that are contrary to what evidence says is best practice: At the same hospital, I have heard numerous stories of women whose non-premature babies were given bottles, despite the mother’s stated wish to breastfeed and without any discussion of alternatives that don’t undermine breastfeeding. Such as, in the case of a newborn who isn’t getting enough milk from nursing, feeding with an eyedropper or with a tube at the mother’s breast, as I did in my first child’s early days.)

The article notes that prematurity occurs at high rates in both third-world and developed countries, but doesn’t explore why this might be, or that the answers look very different for the two categories (or even among populations within, say, the U.S.—such as among affluent, older women having IVF-induced multiple births versus poor, young women of color). Worse, it doesn’t mention that rates of prematurity vary tremendously among countries, even among developed countries. For example, the U.S.'s rate of premature births is double Europe's.

That leaves open the field for readers to dismiss the issue, as one commenter did: “Perhaps we can waste some more time trying to fix something that will always occur.” Premature births will always be with us, like the poor.

As it happens, premature births in the U.S. have been on the rise in tandem with the rise in poverty and inequality. As I've ranted about elsewhere, correlation is not causation, but...