How many premature babies are born every year, and what are the odds my baby will be premature?
Last year, about 4 million babies were born in the United States. Of these, one in ten — 400,000 — will need neonatal care of some sort (for prematurity, birth defects, infections, etc.) Slightly more than this percentage will be born premature. Thus there is a one in ten chance that your pregnancy will end before the complete forty weeks of gestation nature intended, and a similar probability that a baby will need neonatal intervention of some sort. A smaller proportion of newborns will be gravely ill: About 40,000 births a year in the U.S. involve babies born with very low birth weights and gestational ages, who suffer serious complications and require intensive care for long periods of time. Predicting the odds that any one pregnancy will end prematurely is difficult at best, and often impossible. Maternal age, general health, and specific medical conditions — such as diabetes, blood pressure ailments, incompetent cervix, toxemia, etc. — as well as ailments afflicting the unborn chi
