Premature Babies No More Likely to Survive

A UK study of survival rates for prematurely born babies has concluded that while babies born at 24 and 25 weeks of gestation are more likely to survive than they were in the 1990s, the survival rate for premature babies born at only 23 weeks has not changed. During the course of the study, a mere 1 in 5 infants born at 23 weeks survived the ordeal; none of the babies involved in the study lived after being born at 22 weeks. Human pregnancy usually lasts around 40 weeks, beginning from the first day of a woman's last menstrual period; babies born before the 37 week mark are considered premature.