Premature birth report: 'D' for Hawaii
By Rita Rubin
USA Today
The United States overall received a "D" on the March of Dimes' first state-by-state "Premature Birth Report Card," released yesterday.
Hawai'i is among 23 states that also received a "D."
Each year, more than 530,000 U.S. babies are born before 37 full weeks of gestation, which is considered preterm. Preterm birth is the leading cause of newborn death and a major cause of lifelong disability, according to the March of Dimes.
Based on the percentage of 2005 live births that were preterm, Vermont ranked at the top with 9 percent, slightly less than half the figure in Mississippi, which ranked at the bottom with 18.8 percent. Hawai'i's preterm birth rate is 12.2 percent.
"We were surprised by how dramatic the report card is when you actually look at the data on a state-by-state basis," says March of Dimes president Jennifer Howse. "When the map came up, we really had an 'aha' moment."
Even Vermont earned only a "B," though. The reason: The cutoff for an "A" was a preterm birth rate of 7.6 percent or less, the government's "Healthy People 2010" goal for the country. In 2005, the U.S. preterm rate was 12.7 percent, up from 11 percent in 1995.
More research into the causes of preterm birth is needed, Howse says, but "we believe that there are some solutions that are at hand." Among them:
Roger Young, director of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Vermont, emphasizes that "the goal is not preterm birth reduction, period. The goal is healthy babies." If the preterm birth rate falls but the stillbirth rate rises because babies in distress haven't been delivered quickly enough, nothing has been accomplished, says Young, a March of Dimes board member.
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