The Effect of Extremely Low Birth Weight Babies on the Family and Community
Short-Term and Long-Term, Socioeconomic Implications
Low birth weights are associated with more negative consequences to both babies and the community. Babies born with low weight suffer from several complications, some of which are short-term risks like the low immune system and long-term abnormalities connected with brain development. It is also an important indicator of future socioeconomic status. A baby who is very underweight when born may have difficulties feeding on the breast milk, which causes a low rate of gaining weight and low development of the immune system, making it difficult for the child's body to fight against diseases. Brain development determines the intelligence of a person. Children born underweight are known to have low mental quality and the ability to reason. With the melancholy intelligence of a person, it becomes so difficult to venturing into economic activities (Mathewson et al., 2017). This brings about the low living standards of an individual, making the person depend on others for socioeconomic needs.
Need for Care and Comorbidities Associated With Prematurity
The babies' care is dictated according to their health and their ability to permit treatment in their bodies. They need proper nutrition to compensate for the essential components not acquired in the uterus (Zhou et al., 2019). This will also increase the immune system of the body. Preterm birth causes several diseases in the newborn that mostly requires extra medical attention. These include respiratory distress syndrome, Anea and Bradycardia, and Jaundice. Low birthweight occurs when a baby is born weighing less than 5 pounds. The babies born under weighing are healthy and robust, but some are born with severe beneficial occurrences that always need special care (Parker et al.,2019) .preterm birth is born with a gestation period of 37 weeks. They do not complete the gestation period of 9 months. Fatal growth restrictions mainly bring this about.
Immigrants in the country are at greater heights of giving birth to low-weight babies than native women. The black women are the one who tends to deliver low weighted babies in contrast to the whites. The reason as to why the black is associated with such problems is because they reside in alow developed areas that are constituted to a very negative and unconducive environment such as drug abuse poverty and low education levels(Parker et al.,2019). There have been groups that have emerged in a fight for the eradication of such amenities. They fight against drug abuse and poverty. This helps pregnant women access proper health care and abstain from substance abuse, and in turn, it has reduced the rate of birth of low-weight babies.
References
Mathewson, K. J., Chow, C. H., Dobson, K. G., Pope, E. I., Schmidt, L. A., & Van Lieshout, R. J. (2017). Mental health of extremely low birth weight survivors: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychological bulletin, 143(4), 347.
Zhou, H., Wang, A., Huang, X., Guo, S., Yang, Y., Martin, K., ... & Wang, Y. (2019). Quality antenatal care protects against low birth weight in 42 poor counties of Western China. PloS one, 14(1), e0210393.
Parker, M. G., Gupta, M., Melvin, P., Burnham, L. A., Lopera, A. M., Moses, J. M., ... & Belfort, M. B. (2019). Racial and ethnic disparities in the use of mother's milk feeding for very low birth weight infants in Massachusetts. The Journal of pediatrics, 204, 134-141.
