What are some contributing factors to the increase in low birth-weight babies in this area?
Nationally? Unfortunately, in spite of marked advances in care for infants after birth, the incidence of premature delivery in the U.S. has remained difficult to impact. The two most commonly described reasons for this phenomenon have been: 1) the deferring of motherhood until a more advanced maternal age, and 2) the dramatic increase in infertility treatment programs with their associated increase in the occurrence of multiple births. These multiple births, in turn, increase the probability of premature delivery. You have spent most of your life in central Illinois. What aspects of living and working here have been most attractive to you? I was born and grew up in Monticello, Illinois—a small rural community 25 miles from Champaign-Urbana. I have always felt that the Midwestern culture and ethic is, and always has been, a necessary buffer to the rapidly changing lifestyle of the east and west coasts. My wife and I have raised three children in central Illinois and have never regretted
