premature birth

Amy Connor (left) with her son James Connor (right).jpg

How a stranger saved premature baby in need of a blood transfusion

5:41pm June 02, 2025

Amy Connor's twin sons were born 10 weeks before their due date. One of her sons needed a blood transfusion that met specific requirements. They eventually found a match.

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Surgeon Christoph Haller and his research team from Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children are working on technology that could someday result in an artificial womb to help extremely premature babies.

An artificial womb could build a bridge to health for premature babies

12:30pm April 12, 2024

by Rob Stein

Artificial wombs could someday save babies born very prematurely. Even though the experimental technology is still in animal tests, there are mounting questions about its eventual use with humans.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has pulled its approval for an unproven drug intended to prevent premature births.

Health & Safety

FDA pulls the only approved drug for preventing premature birth off the market

2:55pm April 06, 2023

The drug had been fast-tracked for approval under the agency's accelerated approval program, and has been available for more than a decade, despite the drugmaker's failure to prove that it works.

The days might seem long, but the years go by quickly, friends warned when my son was was born. I wanted to savor each precious memory, but how? Living on "toddler time," showed me the way.

To reignite the joy of childhood, learn to live on 'toddler time'

5:11am January 25, 2023

by Rhitu Chatterjee

The days might seem long, but the years go by quickly, friends warned when my son was born. I wanted to savor each precious memory, but how? Living on "toddler time," showed me the way.

Hajime White (right) with her daughter Gwen and Gwen's daughter, Quen, at the family compound in Warren, Ark. Gwen had her first baby, a son, at 16, and, defying the odds for teen moms, went on to finish high school and earn a degree in pharmacy tech. "She never stopped because she had the support of me, her dad and her sisters," Hajime says.

Health & Safety

Why childbirth is so dangerous for many young teens

5:37pm October 07, 2022

by Sarah Varney

Laws banning abortion in many conservative U.S. states are expected to boost birth rates among adolescents, whose bodies often aren't built for safe childbirth, or for carrying a pregnancy to term.

Kristi Alcayaga's teenage son, Michael, was able to try a cancer drug called clofarabine that got an accelerated approval from the Food and Drug Administration. But the medicine didn't help him.

Health & Safety

Drugmakers are slow to prove medicines that got a fast track to market really work

3:50pm July 22, 2022

by Sydney Lupkin

Stalled confirmatory trials and lax enforcement plague the Food and Drug Administration's accelerated approval pathway for pharmaceuticals that target urgent medical needs.

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Sugar and Greg Bull play with their twins, Redford and Scarlett, who were born prematurely in 2020. Their insurance company initially said the births were not an emergency, and the family ended up with bills totaling more than $80,000.

Health & Safety

An $80,000 surprise bill points to a loophole in a new law to protect patients

7:25am February 23, 2022

by Jay Hancock

An insurer refused to pay bills related to the premature birth of the Bull family's twins because it said their delivery wasn't an emergency and their stays in the NICU weren't medically necessary.

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Baby Dorian Bennett arrived two months early and needed neonatal intensive care. Despite having insurance, mom Bisi Bennett and her husband faced a bill of more than $550,000 and were offered an installment payment plan of $45,843 per month for 12 months.

Health & Safety

A hospital offered a payment plan for baby's NICU stay — $45,843 a month for a year

12:24pm December 21, 2021

by Victoria Knight

After baby Dorian Bennett arrived two months early and spent more than 50 days in the neonatal ICU, his parents received a bill of more than $550,000 — despite having health insurance.

Pollution is a global problem. Above: Stockton Street in the Chinatown district of San Francisco on Sept. 9, a time when air quality was affected by wind and wildfires.

New Study Points To Invisible Killer Of Infants

9:57pm October 27, 2020

by Michaeleen Doucleff

The culprit is air pollution — a problem around the globe, from homes where people cook using coal and wood to the smoky streets of San Francisco when wildfires were raging.

High Death Rates For Black Babies In NC: ‘Our Greatest Challenge’

7:43am February 11, 2020

by David Ford

North Carolina holds one of the worst records in the nation for the deaths of children a year old or younger.

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