Giving birth at 8 months is not that trivial, according to a Burgundy study published in the InVS Weekly Epidemiological Bulletin.
It is often explained that a woman can give birth at term as early as 8 months. Thus, an American study published in the European journal Human Reproduction recently explained that the duration of a pregnancy could naturally vary from 5 weeks (between 37 and 41 weeks of amenorrhea (SA).
However, these notions could be undermined. In his Weekly Epidemiological Bulletin, the Institute for Public Health Surveillance (InVS) studies the excess morbidity and excess mortality that accompany not only late prematurity (35-36 weeks WA) but also births at 37-38 WA which are usually considered the end of pregnancy.
More frequent hospitalization from 38 weeks
In order to verify this hypothesis, the study – led by Catherine Quantin of the Dijon CHRU and her team – used the national database of the PMSI (Program for the medicalization of information systems) 2011 to “assess the prognosis at 1 year of single children. born alive, without congenital anomaly and whose gestational age was between 35 and 41 weeks of complete gestation ”.
For the 681,961 children in the study, hospitalization between birth and the 27th day was “all the more frequent as the gestational age was low”, explains the study. So the more premature the child was, the more likely he was to be hospitalized. Visible results even at 38 WA of which 8.8% were hospitalized, against 6.4% at 39-41 WA.
Prognosis less favorable than at 39-41 WA
The study concludes from these figures that “being born at 35-38 WA is a risk factor for neonatal and infant mortality and morbidity in single children free from malformation”.
And to add: “Contrary to the commonly accepted idea, children born at 37-38 WA are more at risk than those born at 39-41 WA. “These populations, which mobilize neonatologist pediatricians less than very premature babies,” deserve special attention, “the study concludes.
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