Latest news with #prematurebirth
Free Malaysia Today
2 days ago
- Health
- Free Malaysia Today
Living near green spaces could reduce risk of premature birth
Mothers living in areas where new trees are planted are more likely to give birth at term, with babies of higher weights, researchers say. (Envato Elements pic) PARIS : The benefits of green spaces for human health are well established – they have been shown, for example, to promote physical activity, and reduce stress and pollution. But proximity to nature also has an impact on the number of premature births, according to a recent US study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment. Conducted by professors at Drexel University in Philadelphia, this research followed over 36,000 pregnant women who gave birth between Jan 1, 2015, and Dec 31, 2020, residing in Portland, Oregon, where over 36,000 trees were planted between 1990 and 2020. The number of trees planted within a 100m radius of the participants' addresses was evaluated. 'We found that tree planting around maternal address was associated with increased birthweight as well as a reduced probability of a small-for-gestational-age or preterm birth,' the researchers wrote. In other words, mothers living in areas where trees were planted within the past 30 years were more likely to give birth at term, with babies of higher birth weights, than those living farther away from tree-planted areas. Specifically, living within 100m of at least 10 trees is associated with an increase of about 50g in birth weight, which was the case for 2,879 babies in the sample studied. 'This might not seem like a lot, but if every baby in our sample gained 50g at birth, that means 642 fewer babies considered small for gestational age and at higher risk for worse development later in life,' said senior author Yvonne Michael. The study also notes that older trees may provide some additional benefits compared to those recently planted, such as improved air quality and reduced noise pollution from road traffic. This study isn't the first to highlight a link between a reduction in premature births and proximity to green space. But the novelty lies in its methodology, which focuses on recently planted trees and over a precise period. 'Existing tree cover is often closely tied to factors like income, education and race, making it difficult to fully account for other possible explanations when studying birth outcomes. By focusing on newly planted trees, we were able to reduce the bias – essentially treating it as a natural experiment,' Michael explained. 'This is another data point showing that planting trees is a relatively easy and low-cost way to improve public health from the earliest stages of life,' she concluded.
BBC News
2 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
Kingsbridge school praised for prematurely born pupils' support
A Devon school has been recognised for the support it gives pupils who were born Primary School has been given a Smallest Things Prem Award to acknowledge the extra training its staff does to learn more about the impact that being born prematurely can have on some children's health and award was given to the school on Belle Cross Road by The Smallest Things charity, which supports families of children born head teacher Miranda Martyn said the school wanted to provide the support so staff could do what was best for pupils. Ms Martyn said: "When a child was born prematurely, we want to understand from the experts of the children - the parents - what works best at school and what works best at home."We put things in place which might be additional support in reading, it might be they need some help getting changed for PE or they need a little bit of time." A full-term pregnancy typically lasts between 37 and 42 weeks and babies born before this are considered Smallest Things charity said, on average, two to three children per class would have been pre-term with more than 50,000 babies born prematurely in the UK each it said many schools still did not understand the impact this could have on some pupils' learning. Catriona Ogilvy, founder of the charity, said Kingsbridge Primary School had "gone above and beyond" with its support for said: "They are asking parents at registration about their child's pre-term health history, being able to better identify children who may have those additional learning needs."Most importantly, they are training staff so that they can identify early children who may need additional support and be able to put support in place as soon as possible." Amy, whose son was born at 26 weeks, said the support at the school was like an "extra layer of care and attention".She added being born early presented "stumbling blocks" for children and the help from the school helped her son overcome said: "They are completely equipped to be able to help my son though that and support him in different ways, meaning that he gets the best out of school."So it is amazing, their awareness is just phenomenal."
CNN
2 days ago
- Health
- CNN
Texas girl thriving after fish skin helped heal her wound as a preemie: ‘I call her my little mermaid'
When Krystal DeVos watches her young daughter, Eliana, play with an Ariel doll, her eyes fill with emotion. 'I call her my little mermaid,' DeVos said of her daughter. Shortly after Eliana was born, it was the healing power of fish skin that helped her recover from a deep wound on her neck. 'Eliana actually has no idea,' said DeVos, who lives in Corpus Christi, Texas. 'Of course, as she gets older, we do want to go back and show her pictures and explain to her what has happened, because it is a part of her story and it's so unique.' Eliana's story began about three years ago, when she was born at 23 weeks gestation, weighing a single pound. She spent 131 days in neonatal intensive care units, during which she developed a life-threatening infection on her neck that caused a severe wound. 'It was almost like a flesh-eating disease, where her body was targeting something there in her neck,' DeVos said. As the infection grew, Eliana developed sepsis, the body's extreme response to an infection, causing some of her organs to shut down. Day after day, DeVos and her family consistently prayed for Eliana to recover. Then the medical team told her about a surprising treatment option. On day 86 of her NICU stay, Eliana was transferred from her local general hospital to Driscoll Children's Hospital in Corpus Christi. She received several medications to treat the infection at both hospitals, including antibiotic therapy. But it was at Driscoll that fish skin became a novel part of her wound care. 'It's microscopically so close to human skin that it helps the wound start to heal,' said Dr. Vanessa Dimas, a pediatric plastic surgeon at Driscoll who treated Eliana. When Dimas first met Eliana, she knew that she would need to do two things: remove the buildup of dead skin tissue from the wound and cover it with some type of treatment to help healthy tissue grow back. But the more traditional approaches – like surgery or a human skin graft – were either too risky or not feasible for a preterm infant like Eliana. Her condition was too fragile. 'She was a premature baby, the wound was very extensive, and she was pretty sick, so I did not feel like it was safe to do a surgical procedure on her,' Dimas said. Instead, Dimas and her colleague Roxana Reyna, a wound ostomy nurse practitioner at Driscoll, used a medical-grade honey solution to clean out the wound. Then they applied a mixture of that honey with fish skin to cover the area. The fish skin – a medical product made from wild North Atlantic cod and manufactured by the Icelandic company Kerecis – provided a scaffold, or a type of platform, for new skin tissue to grow. Some of the omega oils and other natural elements from the fish skin helped contribute to the healing process, Dimas said, adding that 'once it basically does its job, helping the wound heal, then it sort of just melts away.' Potential risks of this fish skin treatment include reactions in children with fish allergies; for infants, it may not be known whether they have an allergy at all. 'That would be the biggest risk: an unknown allergy that could potentially cause some problems,' Dimas said. 'Other than that, there's still a chance that the kid may need surgery, because we don't know how much this is going to help us heal the child.' But for Eliana, the fish skin treatment was well-tolerated and appeared to promote healing. Fish skin has been used for wound care in people around the world, but its use in children – let alone infants – remains rare. In March, Dimas and Reyna presented data about their approach for preterm infants at the European Wound Management Association Conference in Barcelona, Spain. They talked about two case studies: Eliana and a critically ill preterm baby with an abdominal wound. 'Eliana weighed 3 pounds on the day we applied the fish skin graft,' Reyna said. The other patient weighed 1 pound during their treatment. 'Since Eliana, now we have been able to feel confident enough to use it in even smaller babies,' Reyna said. Driscoll Children's Hospital says Eliana's care team appears to be the first to implement Kerecis fish skin in wound care for a single-pound preterm baby. Reyna and Dimas have been recognized for their work, and because of their innovative use of the product, Kerecis has invited them to share their clinical insights in public forums. The concept of using fish skin to help heal damaged tissue in humans has been around for years, but it's still not a very common practice, said Dr. Arun Gosain, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Section on Plastic Surgery and division head of plastic surgery at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. 'There are so many different options' for wound treatment, depending on the depth and severity of the wound, he said. Some approaches involve tissue from other types of animals. 'There are other forms of what we call xenografts, or taking tissue from another species and using it for wound healing,' said Gosain, who was not involved in Eliana's case. For instance, skin from pigs has been commonly used in wound care, as well as collagen from cattle. 'Xenografts may have potential in the future, but they're not used for skin replacement. It's only used for a biologic dressing currently,' he said. Biologic dressings help to temporarily cover wounds and support the natural healing process, essentially aiding in either the wound healing on its own or preparing it for a surgical treatment to close it. For example, someone who has a 'full-thickness wound' – meaning it extends through all three layers of the skin – that isn't healing on its own could benefit from some type of temporary biologic dressing, Gosain said. In that scenario, 'I could use pig skin,' he said. 'We would put that on there as a biologic dressing, realizing that it won't regenerate skin, but it will keep the wound clean until we're ready to transfer the patient's own skin, in some form, to close the wound, whether it be a skin graft or other such thing.' In their case study, Reyna and Dimas described Eliana as having a 'full-thickness wound,' but after three days of the fish skin treatment, they noted 'dramatic results.' They continued to change her dressing every three days, and after the wound was cleaned and dead skin tissue had been removed, it healed in 10 days after the first fish skin mixture was applied, with minimal scarring, according to the study. 'There were no adverse reactions, and additional surgical interventions were unnecessary,' they wrote. Three years later, Eliana's scar is so faint, it's barely noticeable. DeVos said she was inspired by watching fish skin promote the healing of her daughter's wound, and she hopes Eliana's story can help contribute to the world's understanding of fish skin as a medical tool. 'What I hope people take away is that we can be grateful for modern medicine and the power of faith,' she said. 'Never be fearful to try something new. Always be open-minded and just have faith,' she said. 'If something sounds different or you've never been exposed to it before, just take a chance and have a little faith. And in our case, it worked out really great.'
South China Morning Post
2 days ago
- General
- South China Morning Post
Baby dies aboard Philippines-South Korea flight after premature birth
A baby boy born prematurely aboard a Jeju Air flight from the Philippines to Incheon, South Korea , has died, according to airport police. Emergency responders received a report early Sunday morning that an infant delivered mid-flight was not breathing, The Korea Herald newspaper reported. By the time medical personnel arrived, the newborn had no pulse and was pronounced dead after being transported to a nearby hospital. The mother, a Filipino woman in her thirties, was travelling from Clark with her husband, mother-in-law and daughter on the flight, which landed at the country's main airport at around 6.20am. She was in her 23rd to 25th week of pregnancy, Yonhap News reported. Under airline regulations, women before their 32nd week of pregnancy face no flight restrictions. Incheon Airport police are investigating the case as it falls under their jurisdiction. Photo: Shutterstock The airport police are investigating the incident as, under international law, a nation retains legal authority – known as flag state jurisdiction – over its flagged vessels, including aircraft. 'As the baby was born and died on a Korean-flagged aircraft, Korean authorities will handle the investigation,' a police official said, according to the Korea JoongAng Daily. 'We will thoroughly examine the circumstances of the birth and what led to the child's death.'
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
TV presenter AMANDA BYRAM, after years of failed IVF, says: ‘I refuse to be shamed by online trolls for having a baby at 51'
In January this year, after 30 hours of sucking in Royal Sussex County Hospital's finest gas and air, at 51 I finally had the family I'd dreamt of. My second son, Jett, was a month premature, but he felt years overdue. When I first embarked on IVF over a decade ago, I never imagined it would take this long. I started freezing my eggs at 40, met my husband-to-be, Julian, when I was 41 and he was 34, and got married a year later. It wasn't until a few months after my 49th birthday that our first son, Phoenix, arrived. The emotional, physical and financial toll of my fertility journey had been immense, but ultimately worth it. Prematurity aside, my second pregnancy was almost identical to when I carried my first son: healthy, mercifully uneventful and on a strict need-to-know basis. Even though I'm a TV presenter, and am used to living in the public eye, we decided to keep the pregnancies a secret from everyone except closest family. I carried neatly both times, and loose clothing concealed my growing bump. Why the secrecy? After 25 years on shows including Total Wipeout and The Big Breakfast, perhaps I'd learnt to keep certain things private. Following many heartbreaking miscarriages and failed implant attempts, it was easier to try again without too many people knowing. And I wasn't ready for the raised eyebrows on the subject of whether I could, or should, have a baby at my age. Now that Jett had arrived safely, Julian and I were ready to share the news. I had my Instagram post ready, with a photo and words written from the heart. But as my finger hovered over the publish button, I hesitated. My mind drifted back three years to when I announced the birth of Phoenix. I was giddy with excitement at sharing the news and, at first, our joy was amplified by the sheer volume of love we received. Thousands of messages of congratulations from friends and strangers flooded my Instagram feed – most wonderful of all, hundreds of women telling me I was a source of inspiration as they navigated IVF. Of course there was a vocal minority who felt the need to be negative about my age, but they were easy to ignore. Then, during a 3am feed, I ventured beyond my social media channels into the comment sections of news articles covering the story. That's when I saw them. Row after row of cruel words that took my breath away. Strangers dissecting my life, my choices, my body, my future. They calculated my age and concluded my son was destined for misery… 'There's no way she gave birth to this child!' 'It is selfish to have a child at 49.' 'She'll be mistaken for the child's gran when it reaches school age.' 'Her toyboy should do the school run.' 'Fast-forward 20 years: a young man on the cusp of adulthood with two dead parents. I'm sorry but that's just a fact.' I was so angry at the flippancy of the comments. People assumed I had chosen to delay motherhood for my career. The truth? It took me 41 years to meet someone I truly wanted to build a life with. I had been engaged in my late 30s but called off the wedding at the last minute –knowing deep down it wasn't right, even though it might cost me the family I always wanted. When I met Julian, a producer, on a photoshoot in London in 2014, we started dating, married in 2016 and began trying for a baby. And trying. And trying. Having already frozen some eggs I was aware of the diminishing chances, so we moved to IVF pretty quickly. The retrieval cycles dictated our schedule and became woven into our lives, from injecting myself moments before stepping out on live television, to forcing a smile for the cameras hours after a miscarriage. After every loss we picked ourselves up and kept going. The most hurtful online comments were from other women, many of them mothers. Suddenly, afraid of judgment, I began to doubt whether I should share my age with others I met at playgroups and parks. Over time the paranoia faded, and the more mums I met the clearer it became: there is no perfect blueprint for parenthood and life doesn't come with guarantees. We all know people who lost incredible parents too soon, just as we know people who had long-living but toxic parents. Along the way, I met older mums, teenage mums, working mums, stay-at-home mums, mums to children with special needs. I met women who had chosen to go it alone with a sperm donor, others juggling toddlers and teenage stepkids. I met refugees who had fled war zones with their babies in their arms. At the heart of it we were all the same – we found motherhood as tough as it was beautiful, and none of us were thinking much beyond the next bedtime. When Phoenix was two, we decided to try for a second baby. We consulted our families and doctors. The response: a resounding 'go for it'. There were more IVF disappointments along the way, but then Jett arrived. Once I posted the news, the mortality mathematicians, as expected, had a field day yet again, with comments like, 'How selfish – that poor child is going to grow up with parents older than most grandparents when it starts school and will be mocked for having old parents.' The outrage didn't sting this time, though. I refuse to waste time worrying about what other people think, and even less worrying about what might happen 20 or 30 years from now. Instead, I prefer to focus on the positives of having children later in life. The biggest plus is, ironically, my age itself. Finally I have maturity and wisdom – and these outstrip any traits I possessed in my younger years. So, yes, I may be a silver-haired lady when I collect my kids from primary school, but I'll be proud of every single strand. I do my bit by exercising regularly and not smoking, drinking, stressing or eating junk food. There's even evidence that women who give birth after 40 are more likely to live longer, often reaching their 100s! Maybe a purposeful existence keeps us older mums ticking along. I might be here for decades to come or I might not. That's just how life works. What I can control is the love I give and the lessons I pass down. Day and night I hold my children close and remind them they are loved unconditionally. I hope to teach them to embrace life with an open heart, free from judgment and guided by compassion. Online trolls will always feel safe behind their screens. Maybe writing these words opens me up to further scrutiny, but if we don't speak up, how can we expect change? The keyboard critics will win, while society will continue to question and condemn the women who – for one reason or a million others – left it late to start a family. So, let them talk. I'm too busy being a mother.
