Addressing Premature Birth

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In the United States one in eight births are preterm (“Funding for Premature Related Research”).Premature means that the baby is born early, which is any baby born before thirty-seven weeks but health problems are usually only a problem for babies born before thirty-four weeks (“Funding for Premature Related Research”). Premature births are the leading cause for neonatal deaths and half of all premature births have no known causes (Lynch and Dezen). Babies who survive prematurity face multiple health problems including cerebral disease, vision and hearing loss, mental retardation, and lung problems (Lees, Reynolds,andMcCartan). Obviously with so many premature babies being born today, with so many unknown neonatal deaths in premature babies, and with all of the health problems for premature babies, there is a problem that must be addressed.The government needs to further fund research for the care and prevention of premature babies to prevent unnecessary death and health problems, cut costs in the long run, put previous findings into effect and reduce parental stress. Death among premature babies is a growing epidemic which extensive research could prevent. Reported by the march of dimes “about 19,000 babies died in their first month, in the United States” (“Newborn Loss”). There are countless amounts of babies dying each year due to the lack of research. Funding for this needed research on premature babies would prevent the amount of countless deaths among infants in the world. If these lives were saved by new research this would impact more countless lives in a positive way instead of letting death negatively affect new infants and relatives. Newly funded research could also lead to more known causes for these deaths. Half of al... ... middle of paper ... ...ting." European Report, 7 Apr. 2001: n. pag. eLibrary. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. Devlin, Hannah. "Don't Let The Forces Of Unreason Stop Research; Scientists Should Be Braver In Defending Animal Experiments And Open Up Their Labs Series: Editorial; Opinion, Columns." Times of London 7, 07 2013,: n. pag. eLibrary. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. Morrison, Nick. "Animal Rights and Wrongs." Northern Echo, 24 Feb. 2001: n. pag. elibrary. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. Mukerjee, Madhusree, Laurie Grace, and Bryan Christie. "Trends in Animal Research." Scientific American, 2 Feb. 1997: n. pag. elibrary. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. Rick Bogle Alliance for Animals. "It Is Time to Revisit Experimentation on Animals." Wisconsin State Journal, 7 08 2013, All ed., The Cap Times: n. pag. eLibrary. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. Zissou, Rebecca. "Makeup Makeover." Junior Scholastic, 15 Apr. 2013: n. pag. eLibrary. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.

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