Premature infants, babies born before 37 weeks of pregnancy, are at risk for developing physical and mental disabilities. The risk of developmental disability is usually, but not always, related to the degree of prematurity, with a 25-week baby being more prone to problems than one born at 35 weeks. Prematurity can affect any part of a baby's body, including the brain; long-term emotional and behaviorial problems may result from prematurity.
Physical Developmental
Preterm infants in general are slower to meet physical milestones such as sitting, crawling and walking; their developmental age needs to be adjusted to take into account their degree of prematurity. Preterm infants are much more likely to have cerebral palsy, a non-progressing muscle disorder, than full-term infants. Cerebral palsy normally affects between two to four out of 1,000 infants, but the rate of cerebral palsy in preterm infants is 10 times higher, the Merck Manual states. Vision and hearing problems affect as many as 25 percent of infants born at very low birth weight, less than 1,500g, according to Patient UK. Lung problems that may be lifelong are also common in preemies, especially those who need mechanical ventilation.
Mental Developmental
Premature infants, especially those born before 30 weeks, are much more likely to have injuries to their brain than full-term infants. Bleeding into the brain called intraventricular hemorrhage, or IVH, from fragile, not completely formed blood vessels can happen during delivery or result from infection, fluid imbalances, and a number of other causes. Approximately 25 percent of infants born before 30 weeks will have IVH, which ranges from mild, or grade I, to severe, or grade IV, Medline Plus, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine reports. IVH can lead to brain damage and cerebral palsy.
According to Patient UK, children born at 32 weeks or earlier are four times more likely to have attention deficit disorder and are more likely to be disorganized, hyperactive and impulsive.
Emotional and Behavioral
While neonatal intensive care units have done much to make the noisy, sometimes chaotic units as homelike as possible, the lighting, noise levels, and intrusive poking and prodding can take a long-term emotional toll on a preterm infant. According to occupational therapist Lindsey Biel, disorders of sensory integration, the ability to experience and comprehend the world around you, is more common in premature infants. Typical symptoms of sensory integration disorders are hyperactivity, hypersensitivity to noise and touch, and difficult feeding related to oral defensiveness or sensitivity caused by feeding or ventilator tubes.
Patient UK says that teens born prematurely are more likely to have emotional and peer problems including delinquency, depression or drug use.
