Heidi Alexander: “today I am pleased to once again partner with my good friend and colleague Senator Dodd to introduce the Prematurity…”

“today I am pleased to once again partner with my good friend and colleague Senator Dodd to introduce the Prematurity Research Expansion and Education for Mothers who deliver Infants Early Act, or the PREEMIE Act. This bipartisan bill reauthorizes and expands upon the 2006 PREEMIE Act to enhance research into the causes and prevention of prematurity. The end result of this bill will hopefully be to find a solution to the serious problem of premature birth. Premature birth is the leading killer of newborns and a major cause of lasting disabilities, and finding answers to this problem is one of the most urgent challenges confronting medicine today. More than half a million babies are born prematurely in the United States each year, and in nearly half the cases the causes are unknown. In Tennessee 236 babies are born preterm per week on average, and in 2007, 12,256 babies or 14.2 percent of all live births were premature. The emotional toll a premature birth has on a family is significant.”