Early arrivals: Meeting focuses on premature babies' effect on area

One of Laura James' greatest memories is of holding her youngest son, Jonah, for the first time.

Now a healthy 2 1/2-year-old, Jonah is a far cry from what he once was -- an infant born about 10 weeks premature, weighing in at a meager 3 pounds, 8 ounces and measuring roughly the same length as a Barbie doll. He spent the first six weeks of his life in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Southeast Missouri Hospital hooked to three types of tubes and lying on a bed that had to be changed every two days. On the second day after Jonah's birth, a tearful James finally got to hold her son while the NICU nurse on duty changed his bed.

"It was pretty amazing," James said.

But Scott City residents James and her husband Brian had been through this ordeal once before. During her pregnancy with their middle son, Noah, James suffered a placental abruption, which caused Noah to be born also about 10 weeks early, weighing just three ounces more than Jonah. Noah came home from the hospital after four weeks, but he later had to have corrective surgery because his eyes turned inward, a problem that afflicts about one in four premature babies. But James said so far, it's the only sign of long-term ill-health in either Noah, now 4 1/2, or Jonah.

Because of her experiences with both Noah and Jonah, James will be a panelist at the Low Birth Weight Partnership Initiative Conference Friday at the Drury Lodge in Cape Girardeau. The conference, geared primarily toward health professionals, social service agencies and families, is designed to inform the public about the impact of low birth-weight babies on the community.

The conference will have a variety of speakers, including Mary Ann Maloney, KFVS12 news anchor and mother of two low birth-weight children; Rhonda Haynes, the producer of a documentary about black midwives; and area physicians and other health workers.

The conference is sponsored by the Missouri Bootheel Regional Consortium Inc., a not-for-profit organization focused on reducing infant mortality in the region. Cynthia Dean, project director for the conference and chief executive officer for MBRC Inc., said the number of low-weight births has increased over the years in Scott, Mississippi, Pemiscot and Dunklin counties, the area covered by MBRC Inc. Dean said this could be the result of cultural issues related to low weight and premature births. Many of the mothers caseworkers deal with are young, single and come from low-income families.

Dean said low birth-weight babies have an especially high mortality rate among blacks -- about two times higher than babies of other races. Dean said the reasons for this are still unknown.

"It could be external factors, environmental stress, but I don't think anyone knows the answer for sure," she said.

Whatever the case, low birth-weight babies take a huge toll on families. Dean said these children also can cost thousands of dollars in medical care that usually parents cannot pay alone.

"These babies are expensive," she said. "You can easily see a million-dollar baby."

Southeast Missouri Hospital treats an estimated 40 to 60 low birth-weight babies every year. About 180 babies went through Saint Francis Medical Center's NICU last year, but hospital officials were uncertain about how many of these had low birth weights.

Dr. Dan Beaver, a neonatologist at Southeast Missouri Hospital, said babies born before a full 40-week pregnancy term often lack the ability to suck, swallow and regulate their own body temperature. Usually, these skills are developed around weeks 34 or 35, but sometimes, Beaver said, full-term babies are also born underweight and face the same types of problems. This can happen for a variety of reasons, including if the mother had high blood pressure, diabetes or an infection, or if she smoked cigarettes or took drugs during the pregnancy. But many times, as in the case of Jonah James, doctors are unable to determine the exact cause of premature or low-weight births.

Beaver said a large part of treating premature infants is increasing their calorie intake to help them to gain weight. Also, doctors try to simulate the womb by keeping the neonatal unit as quiet as possible and covering baby isolettes, or incubators, with blankets to block the light. Beaver said studies have found that infants who receive too much stimulation from light and sound can develop learning problems later in life.

"We don't usually begin to see that until they reach school," he said. "But we've found the more we do as far as not stimulating them, the better they do."

Lindsey Wathen, a registered nurse at the NICU at Saint Francis Medical Center, said the hospital has an occupational therapist who massages low birth-weight babies because medical studies have found that infants who receive massage therapy show earlier signs of improvement. Massages often help babies gain weight, digest food easier, and build up their immature nervous systems, she said.

Wathen said it is also important that family members spend time with the baby, especially close to the time for him or her to be released from the hospital. Wathen said Saint Francis lets parents as well as other caregivers practice feeding the baby before he or she leaves the hospital.

"If that grandma is going to be taking care of the baby three days a week, say if the mother works or something, then we like to have her in here as well," Wathen said.

Teresa Campbell, case manager supervisor at the MBRC Inc. program Missouri Bootheel Healthy Start, said parents can get help from Healthy Start after a baby comes home from the hospital and until it is 2 years old. Healthy Start case managers work to educate young mothers about how to take care of their babies. If a baby has a specific illness or disorder, managers tailor their work to fit his or her needs.

Healthy Start also works with pregnant women to help prevent low weight births by teaching self care and adequate nutrition.

"A lot of people don't realize what they do when they're pregnant impacts the baby," Campbell said. "Smoking doesn't seem like it could be that dangerous, but it is."

wmcferron@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127

Want to go?

What: "A Work in Progress: Community Responsibility to Low Birth Weight Babies" conference by the Missouri Bootheel Regional Consortium Low Birth Weight Partnership Initiative

When: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday

Where: At the Drury Lodge in Cape Girardeau

Speakers: Keynote speaker Dr. Gloria Wilder Brathwaite, children's advocate and director of the Mobile Health Programs at Children's National Medical Center in Washington D.C.; Richard J. Flaksman, medical director of neonatology services at Southeast Hospital; Sandy Sharp, SEMO Health Network; Mary Ann Maloney, KFVS12 news anchor and mother of two low birth-weight children; Rhonda Haynes, the producer of a documentary about African American midwives.

Info: The conference is free and open to the public, but pre-registration is encouraged. To register or for more information, call (573) 472-4949 or toll free 1-888-317-4949.

Weight graphic

Low birth-weight babies are classified into three categories:

Low birth weight: less than 2,500 grams, or about 5 pounds, 8 ounces.

Very low birth weight: less than 1,500 grams, or about 3 pounds, 5 ounces.

Extremely low birth weight: less than 1000 grams, or about 2 pounds 3 ounces.

Source: Dr. Dan Beaver, Southeast Missouri Hospital neonatologist