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Mom's Ready, but Baby's Not
Late Preterm Infants Are at Greater Risk
By Shel Franco
We've all been there – 35 weeks and ready to pop. We lament about how we couldn't possibly go five more weeks. We read about ways to induce labor early.
Ann Marie Barndt of Milwaukee, Wis., was ready to be done with pregnancy when she hit 30 weeks. "I was measuring at least five weeks ahead – I have big babies," she says. "I could not sleep more than 20 minutes at a time without having to move. I was sleeping on the couch, because we did not have a recliner. My back hurt constantly for the last four months of my pregnancy, but it was really bad from 30 weeks on."
Barndt was exhausted, trying both Ambien and Tylenol PM in order to get some much-needed sleep. Eventually, the pain and exhaustion lead her to take things into her own hands. "We tried having sex to induce labor, but nothing," she says. "I tried eating certain foods – nothing. I begged and prayed to God above to let this baby come – nothing. My OB wouldn't induce labor unless there was some type of activity going on. I begged her at my 38-week appointment, but she said no. I wasn't dilated."
Barndt's OB had good reason to wait. Research shows it's not such a good idea to rush Baby from the womb – even late in the pregnancy.
"In one study,* 10 percent of late preterm newborns required active management for hypothermia compared to none of term newborns, and they were three times more likely to have hypoglycemia," says Dr. Charles Leon Anderson Jr., neonatologist and chair of pediatrics at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston, Mass. "These same investigators went on to find that late preterm newborns were more likely to require IV fluids, have clinical jaundice and respiratory distress."
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