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The preterm birth rate - that is, the percentage of infants born before 37 weeks gestation - fell to its lowest level in 17 years, according to the CDC. As the March of Dimes notes in its latest Premature Birth Report Card, that means the U.S. hit the federal Healthy People 2020 goal for preterm births seven years early.
But there's still plenty of work to be done. The March of Dimes has set a more aggressive goal of reducing the preterm birth rate to 9.6 percent by 2020, and gives the U.S. a "C" grade overall for its reduction efforts.
"The U.S. still has one of the highest rates of preterm birth of any high-resource country and we must change that," said March of Dimes President Dr. Jennifer L. Howse in a statement. In 2010, the U.S. ranked 131st out of 184 countries on preterm birth rate, according to a report by the World Health Organization. In that year our premature birth rate was the same as Somalia's.
Why the relatively high rate? One factor is insurance: the rate of preterm birth among uninsured women stands at 19.8 percent. To the extent that Obamacare allows more Americans to get health insurance, it will have the effect of reducing preterm births.
Another factor is that more women have been electing to have births by c-section earlier in their pregnancy terms, although the March of Dimesnotes that that trend seems to be reversing.
But there's still plenty of work to be done. The March of Dimes has set a more aggressive goal of reducing the preterm birth rate to 9.6 percent by 2020, and gives the U.S. a "C" grade overall for its reduction efforts.
"The U.S. still has one of the highest rates of preterm birth of any high-resource country and we must change that," said March of Dimes President Dr. Jennifer L. Howse in a statement. In 2010, the U.S. ranked 131st out of 184 countries on preterm birth rate, according to a report by the World Health Organization. In that year our premature birth rate was the same as Somalia's.
Why the relatively high rate? One factor is insurance: the rate of preterm birth among uninsured women stands at 19.8 percent. To the extent that Obamacare allows more Americans to get health insurance, it will have the effect of reducing preterm births.
Another factor is that more women have been electing to have births by c-section earlier in their pregnancy terms, although the March of Dimesnotes that that trend seems to be reversing.
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