Premature birth report: La. gets F

The March of Dimes on Tuesday issued a grade of F to Louisiana for having too many premature births.

The three factors measured on the March of Dimes 2012 Premature Birth Report Card are: smoking among women of childbearing age, uninsured women and late premature births, meaning births between 34 and 36 weeks, according to a March of Dimes news release.

Premature birth is a birth occurring before 37 weeks of pregnancy. Full-term birth is defined as a pregnancy lasting 39 to 41 weeks.

The F grade is based on how close Louisiana is to a goal set by the March of Dimes of less than 10 premature births in 100 deliveries, or about 10 percent, a rate it hopes to achieve by the year 2020. The report card includes data from the National Center for Health Statistics showing Louisiana’s premature birth rate is 15.6 percent.

Louisiana March of Dimes Chapter State Director Frankie Robertson said in a news release that the group is leading efforts to improve the grade by advocating for increased access to prenatal health care, by increasing education about why the last weeks of pregnancy are so important to a baby’s health, and by forming partnerships with Louisiana health care leaders, including the state Department of Health and Hospitals.

“We are thrilled to be working in partnership with DHH secretary Bruce Greenstein, his team and the Louisiana Hospital Association,” Robertson said. “The work we have already started will, in the long run, improve the health of Louisiana’s newborns.”

March of Dimes and its partners are addressing the report card recommendations.

Birthing hospitals in the Louisiana Health Association say they will continue to avoid elective deliveries before 39 weeks of pregnancy unless medically necessary.

DHH has renewed it commitment to its LA-Moms program to help more pregnant women qualify for Medicaid coverage, and March of Dimes will continue to advocate for coverage of smoking cessation programs for pregnant women.

“We were the first state to accept the March of Dimes’ challenge to reduce premature births 8 percent by 2014, and we continue our aggressive work through programs like our Louisiana Birth Outcomes Initiative to give babies a better chance at living a longer, healthier life from the start,” Greenstein said in the release.

Robertson said the March of Dimes is working to reduce Louisiana premature births by at least 8 percent between 2009 and 2014.

Comments

1) Comment by crabby - 14/11/2012

What premature infant has a career? Seems a lot of hypocrites are fighting tooth and nail for fetuses and then turning their backs once they are born. It's what happens when you blindly follow your political side.

2) Comment by tradewinns - 13/11/2012

bouncer, you wrote "................our virtues". perhaps you could express what your idea of a virtue is. and by the way DMJ, whether i'm a christian or not has nothing to do with this. i'm a taxpayer regardless and am tired of spending money for those who prefer not to work and pay their own bills, especially when that is their "career".

3) Comment by Whatnow - 13/11/2012

Political correctness does obscure the obvious, doesn't it mj6338? Political correctness is only demanded by Democrats until they campaign each group.

4) Comment by DMJ - 13/11/2012

So...blackness is to blame for this, right mj6338? Care to connect the logical dots for all of us who are too politically correct?

5) Comment by mj6338 - 13/11/2012

Let's face it; this yet another unwanted social characteristic is due to Louisiana's high (32%) black population, second only to Mississippi. Political correctness always inhibits reporting such social statistics as a function of race; thus the data confounds seeing the big picture.

6) Comment by crabby - 13/11/2012

brlady - didn't BHO change things by figuring out how to put into action the Republican's idea of health care for all ?

7) Comment by Bouncer - 13/11/2012

This must be another byproduct of all those "family values" that are held up as one of our virtues. Whatever. Just another epic fail for Lose-e-anner.

8) Comment by brlady61 - 13/11/2012

If we ever STOP subsidizing illegtimate births, this grade would improve by leaps and bounds. Apparently most of the country thinks this is a bad idea. We just elected BHO who won't change a thing.

9) Comment by agagent - 13/11/2012

If pregnant women cared they would stop smoking, drinking, and doing drugs. Otherwise, the survey does not fully explain why Louisiana had such a poor “report card.” The Advocate reported that 75% of all births in Louisiana were paid for by Medicaid. That report could be a reflection of how people who are not responsible for their own well being and are dependent on government may also be irresponsible in pregnancy. It might also be an indictment on the poor quality of prenatal care in Medicaid.

10) Comment by Whatnow - 13/11/2012

More money for the self centered and stupid. The advice is free if you want it. Following it is another thing.

11) Comment by DMJ - 13/11/2012

How very Christian of you, tradewinns. Ooh, ooh! I know what would help... cutting Medicaid! Yeah! Maybe we can get an F-. There's no reason to think we should be satisfied with a regular F.

12) Comment by tradewinns - 13/11/2012

if you would take out the welfare cases, what would the grade be then? uninsured and smoking go hand in hand with "poor" people, the majority of these are welfare cases. i agree, La. has too many of these. the question should be, how can we get all of them to move to another state? the resulting grade would probably be an "A", a "B" at the worse.