40,000 prem babies born each year in the UK, thats nearly 110 babies a day

[ElfOnTheTopShelf]

Blimming heck, I did not realise that so many premature babies were born each day.

Not sure how many babies are born each day in the UK in total to find out the percentage but that has made me slightly shocked this morning

They had a doctor on the telly saying that there was no advice they could give to stop people having premature babies and they need to do more research, but surely if women have been having premature babies for years, they should have some sort of research numbers already?

(On BBC news)

elf - in dd1's case - she was actually born at 38 weeks - within the 'normal' time frame BUT due to her failure to grow for two weeks prior to that they classed her as a premmie baby. So whilst she was technically okay( heart defect and down syndrome aside) - she was still seen as premmie medically.

That does seem like an awful lot though doesn't it?

I think that is probab;ly counting EVERY baby born pre 37 weeks - so the ones on the cusp, who might be a result of bad dates etc.... bump the figures up. If 110 TRULY prem babies were born each day our NICU's would be jammed to the rafters!!

Let me just clarify - I am not saying that all babies bron a "little" buit early are the result of poor dating!!!!!

So when some hospitals class 30something weeks as full term (is it 38 weeks some hospitals class as full term?) they may report that as prem?

I was really shocked at the number tbh, makes me feel a little better if it is more bad dates / 37ish weeks iyswim

I'll ask my M/w friend, but I' pretty sure the cut off is 36 or 37 weeks - I guess maybe they give a little le way based on weight? So a 7lb 35 weeker is less of a worry than a 5lb 35 weeker? that is a guess, I don't know.

I saw this on the BBC this morning - I actually thought that 40000 referred to the number of babies born before 32 weeks? I thought that's what they said.

There are 60 million people in the Uk, so it's not that surprising. What is surprising is that the rate of premature birth is higher then in other developed countries, but they don't know why that is.

That would explain why, when I was in hospital prior to DD being born (at 34 weeks) I was constantly on edge never knowing which hospital I'd end up in because the Special Care Cots where almost always full by the end of the day. Several times I was shunted off in the middle of the night to arrive at another hospital because it had a bed available - only to be told I was off somewhere else when that cot was then full. By the time I was told to go to Liverpool (live in Bucks) I was discharged

They just wouldn't take the risk of me going into labour and there being no cot available. When we did get to Special Care (thankfully at local hospital)- DD was the oldest there by four weeks....and three lots of twins under 30 weeks...my hat goes off to the staff that work there - totally amazing.

I had a 25 weeker, in hospital for 4 months. During this time, there were many times that babies had to be transported half way across the country because there was no room in the SCBU.

still shocked by the numbers. They showed a premmie baby on the news and I was struck by how teeny they are, thanking lucky stars that although I had a difficult pregnancy with DD, she was born at 39 weeks by section.