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.
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.
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.
An expert panel wants the Food And Drug Administration to withdraw its approval for Makena, because a large study shows the drug doesn't work. But some doctors say the evidence isn't clear-cut.
Group prenatal visits are catching on — they can save money and reduce the risk of premature births. For one mother, it turned out to be the best decision she made during her pregnancy.
Remarkably little is known about the fundamentals of how a woman carries a baby inside her. Two Columbia University researchers aim to change that, to reduce the number of kids born too soon.
Pregnant women in intensive care with severe cases of the flu have a higher risk of giving birth to babies prematurely. The risk of breathing problems for the baby is also substantially higher.
As a woman ages, choosing when to try for a second or third child means weighing fertility odds against the risks of getting pregnant again too soon. A new study provides more data to help decide.
Premature birth rates are heading in the wrong direction after nearly a decade of decline. Some states have started to tackle the problem, while others struggle with stubbornly high rates.
Preterm birth, a leading cause of death in infants, remains stubbornly hard to prevent. Researchers are on the hunt for a better understanding of what causes it and better ways to diagnose risk.
African-American women are more likely to lose a baby in the first year of life than women of any other race. Scientists think that stress from racism makes their bodies and babies more vulnerable.
South Carolina says it will contribute up to $7.5 million to help fund the expansion of the "Nurse-Family Partnership" in the state if the program can show it is improving pregnancy outcomes.
The device kept fetal lambs alive for about a month, allowing them to continue to mature. It has not been tested in humans, and some say the device raises ethical questions.
Being born too soon puts babies at risk of lifelong disabilities, and it is the leading cause of infant death. It's not clear why the numbers are going up, but lack of health care is one factor.
Babies born premature are at risk for eye damage that can cause blindness, like it did for Stevie Wonder. Babies who are fed breast milk are much less likely to be affected.
Doctors were once unquestioned authorities on how aggressively to treat the sickest and most premature babies. Then parents started pushing back for more say. The responsibility can be excruciating.
As families consider how far to push an infant's medical care, a chasm can open between the parents' hopes and what doctors and nurses consider realistic. How do you measure a baby's quality of life?
Emily Morgan and her husband, Chase, wrapped their three-months premature baby in towels to keep him warm and alive until the ship reached Puerto Rico. They got him to a hospital just in time.
Sometimes one person's insight transforms medicine. Dr. John Clements is one of those people. In the 1950s he discovered a slippery lung substance key to breathing, and to the survival of tiny babies.
