Over 60,000 babies are born each year weighing less than 3.3 pounds. Modern medicine is allowing most premature babies to survive, but many will suffer some form of brain damage.
“That means that overall rates of cerebral palsy and other neurodevelopmental disabilities are on the rise,” says David Rowitch, chief of neonatology at the University of California, San Francisco.
According to Rowitch, lack of oxygen is the chief cause of brain injury in premature infants. White matter, where the “communication highways” reside, carrying messages through the brain and to the body, is damaged by oxygen deprivation.
Rowitch originally discovered the white matter damage by examining dead infants, but recently has been able to take over 250 premature babies through an MRI by using a special incubator designed to go through the scanner. This allows scientists to detect damage to white matter immediately.
Now that scientists can detect the damage, they need a way to prevent or repair it.
Though some treatments are still years away from human trials, there are some available now, including magnetic stimulation of certain areas of the brain and temporarily lowering the body temperature of the premature infants.
Was your child born premature? Did they suffer any birth defects or brain injuries?
Cappolino Dodd Krebs LLP – Birth trauma lawyers