THE BEST CURE, A TIMELY BIRTH

The universities of Leicester, Liverpool, Oxford and Warwick and the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit have done a study where they had discovered that the babies who are born between the 37 or the 38 weeks are more likely to have health problems than the ones who are born with 39 weeks or after them. The research was done with a group of 14,000 children, born 10 years ago, up to the age of five and has been published in the British Medical Journal. Some of the results are especially interesting. For example, 15% of babies born in full term experienced asthma or wheezing as young children. The figure increased to 17% for those born just a few weeks early. The percentage of births between 37 and 38 weeks is about the fifth part of the 100,000 births of babies in a year (United Kingdom). A previous study said that babies born prematurely had important asthma and wheezing problems, however this new investigation has discovered that babies born some weeks after may also need extra medical attention. Some of the participants in this research made the following statements:

• Dr Elaine Boyle, from the University of Leicester said “What we've found is that there is a gradient of increasing health risk with increasing prematurity but this risk stretches right up until the time at which a baby should be born.”
•  Andy Cole, chief executive of the special care baby charity Bliss, welcomed the research and said “Babies born early are at a higher risk of conditions such as asthma in childhood and should be given regular health check-ups to ensure they remain healthy.”

Ana Cebrero Rodríguez, 1ºBach. C