The normal gestation period for birth is 40 weeks, and anything under 37 weeks is considered premature or preterm birth. Preeti experienced a premature birth at 24 weeks in 1989, weighing only 2 pounds, an astonishingly early birth that she feels incredibly lucky to have survived. Premature birth can impact health in a variety of ways over the course of someone's life, including neurodevelopmental challenges, cardiovascular disease, congestive heart failure, high blood pressure, chronic kidney disease and more. These impacts can present throughout the course of someone's lifespan, often unpredictably.
In this episode of the Major Pain podcast, Preeti discusses not only her personal history with preterm birth, but also the wide-ranging spectrum of how premature birth can impact someone's life. She also shares the incredible steps that were taken to keep her alive at birth in 1989. So far, the majority of Preeti's challenges have been neurodevelopmental. She lives with ADHD and anxiety, as well as mild issues with executive functioning, visual-spatial learning and focusing. Luckily she has not experienced any issues with her organs so far, but remains constantly aware that there is potential for these issues to develop at any point in her life. As an adult she has made it her mission to educate other people about premature birth, to help both patients and their parents learn about how their lives may be impacted.
Preeti has assembled a collection of research papers for anyone interested in learning more about premature birth. You can find them here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HfLIOUepjME6GX7UJHlH3PxUt_9gHux_?usp=sharing
She also recommends the following resources:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fped.2023.1213243/full#B16
https://adultpreemies.com/resources/
PlayWatch the episode on YouTube, or listen on your favorite podcast platform.