thesis
Fetal Food - Preemie's Prerequisite? Studies on human fetal and neonatal protein metabolism
- Publication date
- 11 December 2008
- Publisher
- In 1960, the terms ‘neonatology’ and ‘neonatologist’ were first coined in a textbook on
newborns. In hindsight, that decade turned out to be the start of modern care for
prematurely born babies. Since then, survival chances for premature infants improved
dramatically: for 1-kg-weighing infants from hardly any to approximately 90% nowadays. In
addition, due to ongoing research, many infants born too early now have good health
outcome, although there is also a large group facing mild handicaps and a smaller group
facing more severe handicaps.
In the Netherlands, the incidence of all live births delivered preterm – that is before 37
weeks of gestation – was 7.3% in 2004. Infants born alive very preterm (<32 weeks)
make up 1.1% of the 194.007 births in the Netherlands that same year. These very
preterm infants spent on average 28 days on a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). In the
United States, the current incidence of births delivered preterm amounts 12.8% and is thus
higher than in the Netherlands. Moreover, the percentage is on the rise: between 1981 and
2005 it increased with 35% (Figure 1). Although we are aware of several factors
responsible for this increase (see below), prematurity is becoming a problem affecting
society more and more.