The increasing prevalence of preterm birth in the United States is a complex public health problem that requires multifaceted solutions. Preterm birth is a cluster of problems with a set of overlapping factors of influence. Its causes may include individual-level behavioral and psychosocial factors, sociodemographic and neighborhood characteristics, environmental exposure, medical conditions, infertility treatments, and biological factors. Many of these factors co-occur, particularly in those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged or who are members of racial and ethnic minority groups. While advances in perinatal and neonatal care have improved survival for preterm infants, those infants who do survive have a greater risk than infants born at term for developmental disabilities, health problems, and poor growth. The birth of a preterm infant can also bring considerable emotional and economic costs to families and have implications for public-sector services, such as health insurance, educational, and other social support systems. Preterm Birth assesses the problem with respect to both its causes and outcomes. This book addresses the need for research involving clinical, basic, behavioral, and social science disciplines. By defining and addressing the health and economic consequences of premature birth, this book will be of particular interest to health care professionals, public health officials, policy makers, professional associations and clinical, basic, behavioral, and social science researchers.

Each year in the United States approximately 440,000 babies are born premature. These infants are at greater risk of death, and are more likely to suffer lifelong medical complications than full-term infants. Clinicians and researchers have made vast improvements in treating preterm birth; however, little success has been attained in understanding and preventing preterm birth. Understanding the complexity of interactions underlying preterm birth will be needed if further gains in outcomes are expected. The Institute of Medicine's Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine sponsored a workshop to understand the biological mechanism of normal labor and delivery, and how environmental influences, as broadly defined, can interact with the processes of normal pregnancy to result in preterm birth. This report is a summary of the main themes presented by the speakers and participants.

The improved survival of very preterm and very low birth weight infants in recent decades has been associated with an increase in the prevalence of physical and neurodevelopmental problems. Attention is increasingly being focused on the quality of life of survivors, who are at greater risk of brain damage and consequent neurological disorders, and neuropsychological and behavioural impairments. In this volume, leading experts present a comprehensive and up-to-date perspective on research in various aspects of the long-term consequences of very preterm birth. As well as extending existing knowledge of the neurodevelopmental sequelae following very preterm birth, a shared aim of this burgeoning body of research is to identify the mechanisms underlying variations in outcome, and thus recognise subgroups of children who are at increased risk of neurodevelopmental problems, for whom appropriate intervention strategies can be devised. Pediatricians, neurologists, psychiatrists and psychologists will all find this to be essential reading.

This book synthesizes and analyzes research on early vocal contact (EVC) for preterm infants, an early healthcare strategy aimed at reducing the long-term impact of neonatal hospitalization, minimizing negative impacts of premature birth, and promoting positive brain development. Chapters begin by examining research on the maternal voice and its unique and fundamental role in infant development during the fetal and neonatal period. The book discusses the rationale for EVC with preterm infants, the underlying neurobiological mechanisms, and the challenges for infants’ development. Subsequent chapters highlight various EVCs that are used in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), including direct talking and singing to preterm infants. In addition, the book also presents and evaluates early family-centered therapies as well as paternal and other caregiver voice interventions. Topics featured in this book include: Early vocal contact and the language development of preterm infants. The maternal voice and its influence on the stability and the sleep of preterm infants. Parental singing as a form of early interactive contact with the preterm infant. Recorded or live music interventions in the bioecology of the NICU. The role of the music therapist to hospitalized infants. The Calming Cycle Theory and its implementation in preterm infants. Early Vocal Contact and Preterm Infant Brain Development is an essential reference for researchers, clinicians and related professionals, and graduate students in developmental psychology, pediatrics, neuroscience, obstetrics and nursing.

Diagnosis, Management and Modeling of Neurodevelopmental Disorders: The Neuroscience of Development is a comprehensive reference on the diagnosis and management of neurodevelopment and associated disorders. The book discusses the mechanisms underlying neurological development and provides readers with a detailed introduction to the neural connections and complexities in biological circuitries, as well as the interactions between genetics, epigenetics and other micro-environmental processes. In addition, the book also examines the pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions of development-related conditions. - Provides the most comprehensive coverage of the broad range of topics relating to the neuroscience of aging - Features sections on the genetics that influences aging and diseases of aging - Contains an abstract, key facts, a mini dictionary of terms, and summary points in each chapter - Focuses on neurological diseases and conditions linked to aging, environmental factors and clinical recommendations - Includes more than 500 illustrations and tables

Strategic health planning, the cornerstone of initiatives designed to achieve health improvement goals around the world, requires an understanding of the comparative burden of diseases and injuries, their corresponding risk factors and the likely effects of invervention options. The Global Burden of Disease framework, originally published in 1990, has been widely adopted as the preferred method for health accounting and has become the standard to guide the setting of health research priorities. This publication sets out an updated assessment of the situation, with an analysis of trends observed since 1990 and a chapter on the sensitivity of GBD estimates to various sources of uncertainty in methods and data.

Created for use in clinical settings, The Capute Scales are effective both as a screener for general practitioners and as an assessment tool for specialists such as developmental pediatricians, speech-language pathologists, and occupational therapists. With its high correlation with the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, this standardized instrument will assist clinicians in making developmental diagnoses, counseling families, and guiding them to appropriate intervention services. The Capute Scales Manual includes an explanation of the scales' development, guidelines on administration and scoring, an overview of clinical and research use, and information on standardization of the scales and their use in other languages. Available in other languages! Spanish and Russian translations of The Capute Scales are included in the manual, and work on other translations is ongoing. This manual is part of The Capute Scales, a norm-referenced, 100-item screening and assessment tool that helps experienced practitioners identify developmental delays in children from 1-36 months of age. Developed by Arnold J. Capute, the founding father of neurodevelopmental pediatrics, this reliable, easy-to-administer tool was tested and refined at the Kennedy Krieger Institute for more than 30 years. Learn more about The Capute Scales.

This is the second edition of the manual describing this popular and practical tool for the clinical neurological examination of the newborn. In addition to a number of developments on the original scheme in the light of clinical and research experience, the new manual also facilitates the recording and performance of the examination by providing clear information on its administration aided by illustrative diagrams. New sections include a simplified version of the examination suited to inexperienced staff, applicable both for screening and for use in developing countries; a revised proforma that may be used for the follow-up of infants beyond the neonatal period; and a new section describing clinical patterns in newborns with brain lesions and their correlation with imaging and neurological findings. Scoring tables are included in the back of the book.