High cost for low birth weight infants

WASHINGTON, July 14 (UPI) -- The National Academy of Sciences in Washington says the increase in the number of premature and low birth weight infants continues and is puzzling scientists.

In spite of efforts to lower the rate, a NAS Institute of Medicine report shows 1-in-8 U.S. children born in 2004 was premature and 1-in-12 had a low birth weight, The Wall Street Journal says.

Babies born before 37 weeks of pregnancy are considered premature while those weighing less than 5.5 pounds are classified as low birth weight.

Figures show the number of premature infants delivered in the United States has been on the rise for 23 years.

In 2004, 12.5 percent of births were classified as premature, representing a 30-percent increase over the rate of 9.4 percent in 1981, the academy reports.

"We don't know why this is happening," Dr. Duane Alexander, director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development says. "(It) has resisted all our best efforts so far to improve it."

The cost of treating those babies has reached nearly $26 billion a year, largely because of technological developments that allow more premature and low birth weight babies to survive.