Number of premature births
rises in Hawaii

Hawaii's premature birth rate rose 33 percent from 1992 to 2002, more than double a 13 percent increase nationally, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

The March of Dimes, which found a cure for polio with the Salk vaccine 50 years ago, launched a five-year campaign in 2003 to reduce premature births.

The upward trend in the past 10 years has been described as the No. 1 obstetric challenge in the country.

At the 35th annual March of Dimes WalkAmerica, islanders will help raise funds for research to save babies' live. Registration forms are available at Central Pacific Bank or on the Web site: www.walkamerica.org.

The Oahu event will begin at 7:30 a.m. Saturday at Kapiolani Park. The walk was scheduled today in Hilo and held earlier this month on Kauai and Maui. Kona's walk will be April 30.

The Healthy People goal for 2010 is to reduce pre-term births to no more than 7.6 percent of live births. A pre-term baby is one born less than 37 weeks after conception.

Nearly 500,000 babies were born prematurely nationwide in the past year. In Hawaii, more than 2,100 premature babies are born annually, March of Dimes said.

In 2002, one in seven babies in Hawaii, or 13.7 percent of live births, were pre-term.

Babies born too early often have low birth weight and may suffer life-long effects, such as cerebral palsy, blindness, asthma or other breathing problems, mental retardation and learning disabilities.

"The problem with prematurity is we're getting more and more little babies, under 3 pounds," said Cheryl Prince, state maternal and child health epidemiologist.

"Babies are born earlier and earlier, contributing to the infant mortality rate. Babies born that fit into the palm of your hand have more challenges."

March of Dimes' prematurity campaign is intended to call attention to problems and try to identify leading causes so they can be prevented, she said.

There are some obvious reasons for premature babies with high-risk patients but they don't comprise the bulk of the obstetric population, Prince said.

"In the medical profession, we don't really know what is the cause," she said. "It has been researched for years. We look at different populations and try our best to figure it out.

"One of the theories some of us believe, that's very hard to prove, is the impact of stress ...and one's coping factors," she added. "It's so hard to measure stress."