A belief began to spread that babies born seven months pregnant were more likely to survive than babies born in the eighth month
Premature babies, myths and realities. It existed in the past and continues to persist today, a belief that seven-month-old premature babies are more likely to survive than eight-month-old babies. Is this true? We explain it to you.
Childbirth occurs when the baby reaches its due term, after a gestation of 40 weeks from the date of the start of the last menstruation. However, in some cases, the baby does not reach its due term and the delivery arrives before the completion of 40 weeks of gestation. When the baby is born before the 36th week of gestation, the baby is said to be premature.
A few decades ago, unlike today, when a baby was born prematurely it had very little chance of survival. Then a belief began to spread that babies born at seven months of gestation (seven months) were more likely to survive than those born at the eighth month of gestation (eight months). However, this belief is totally false.
Premature babies, that is, those born before the 36th week of pregnancy, have very immature organs, especially the lungs, which take the longest to mature. However, according to experts, babies can survive premature from the 24th week of pregnancy and when they reach around 500 grams of weight. Thus, currently, a seven-month-old baby between 28 and 32 weeks of gestation has a good chance of survival.
On the other hand, babies born eight-month-old have survival of over 90%. Like all premature infants, they may have problems at birth to which, although most of these are not serious issues, attention should be paid. These problems do not depend on whether the child was born seven months or eight months.
Although it is necessary to remember that the myth about the survival probabilities of a seven-month-old and an eight-month-old is false, it is true that there are differences between a baby born at seven months of gestation from one born at eight months.
Babies born at seven months of gestation have very immature lungs and most of them need respiratory assistance. These babies have not yet developed some reflexes, such as sucking, which is essential for them, since it is the one that allows them to suckle from the mother’s breast. For this reason, they are usually fed through a tube.
These babies also often need respiratory assistance, since their lungs are not fully developed. However, at the eighth month of gestation, the baby has already developed the sucking reflex, so it can suckle from the mother’s breast.
This question is difficult to answer since premature babies are often “classified” according to gestational age and birth weight. Normally, to assess the survival ability of the little one, doctors give more importance to weight than to gestational age. It should be remembered that even today, being premature is the second cause of infant mortality, behind congenital anomalies. However, medical advances make it possible for this mortality to drop.