PSY-PC 1250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Preterm Birth, Gestational Age, Neural Development
4 Feb 2020
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New lecture [premature birth: the perils of premature birth--any birth that occurs 3 or more weeks prior to expected due date (given a 40 week pregnancy, anything 37 weeks or earlier) Fairly common--occurs in about 12% of births: many of the teratogens we discussed previously can increase the risk of premature birth (smoking, alcohol, drugs also stress, young age of maternity, overweight or undernourished mothers, multiple births) [idea is that it increases rapidly: 24 weeks--official age of viability--50% of infants born in this period would die (but because of our medical system, this percentage has gone down fairly significantly to. 38% in the first month: after this however, the rate of survival drops pretty precipitously--at 23 weeks, only about 33% survive, and at 22 weeks, only about 7% survive their first month. Lack of fat buildup on bodies, so difficulty regulating temperature.
