Loading...
Rates of extremely preterm birth have risen during the past 2 decades. Advances in neonatal care improve the likelihood of survival for infants born at the cusp of viability, but with such advances comes the temptation to offer ever more interventions. Now, one group of investigators has assessed U.S. cesarean delivery rates in periviable neonates during a 6-year period, and another group has examined whether racial or ethnic disparities in the rates of such deliveries are evident.
From 1999 through 2005, <1% of infants were born at 22 to 28 weeks' gestation; however, whereas rates of all births rose by 4% during this period, rates of extremely premature births rose by 7%. Cesarean delivery rates in extremely preterm infants rose from 43% in…