Preemie gender-how much does it affect the outcome?

[alexa5]

My son was born just under 34 weeks also, and he spent 2 weeks in the NICU--mainly a feeder and grower (he was just under 4 lbs when born). He needed the lights for jaundice at first, and then from there it was about growing and making sure he could feed. The NICU nurses mentioned that thing about the wimpy white boys, but not when referring to him...he did fine and had some good spunk and personality even in the NICU

He would have been there a few days less but on one of his last days he had an a/b episode and had to stay the required few days after it, and didn't have another episode of it. No issues when he was brought home, grew steadily and eventually became bigger than other kids his age.

Boys are fun...you will love it!

[heather j]

Jean, Nicolas was born exactly 13 minutes after he turned 36 weeks and was barely 5 lbs, but had no preemie characteristics, no breathing issues, and was ready for discharge three days later at 4lbs and 9oz. Our doctors had warned us from the beginning of onset that his gender would work against his maturity, but that his hostile environment would probably work in his favor.

[caryn]

The PDA issues weren't what kept him in NICU - he was there for a week because he needed to coordinate sucking and swallowing and breathing, which was mostly a problem because he was jaundiced and kept falling asleep in the middle of a feed. They discharged him with a followup at a pediatric cardiologist a month later to check the PDA. It turned out to be perfectly closed on ultrasound at the followup, so it was never really an issue.

So he was born at 34 weeks and discharged to home with instructions to "treat him like a normal baby" at 35 weeks.

[jean]

Caryn, just out of curiosity how long did your son have to stay in the NICU since he had PDA issues?

[caryn]

It's not size that gets accelerated. Small babies can survive just fine, if they're mature enough. It's hard to explain how this works because scientists don't actually have a lot of data here, but what seems to be happening is that in humans preterm birth is not just a bug, but a feature. (Which poses problems for the goal of the March of Dimes, actually.) Our babies are *generally* coming out earlier, and more immature, because the selective pressures on us predispose humans to preterm birth. And one way we are working around this is to alter the developmental timetable of our fetuses so that our babies survive their early deliveries. Placentas are battlegrounds for this sort of thing, and by flipping chemical switches can accelerate or retard development because they can speed up or slow down developmental cascades.

I got steroids, so it's hard to say for certain, but Oscar came out very robust and was on only room air and monitors and IV nourishment within 12 hours - at 34 weeks. He was a NICU cakewalk - never had ABCs and was born with a working suck reflex. He was just on an earlier timetable. (His ears still weren't done, and his PDA took a while to close, so there were obvious premature characteristics as well, but still.)

[jean]

So because of the pre-e, the body actually helps the boys' progress along a bit? Wow, that's interesting.

Right now our son is measuring spot on (not ahead or behind)..so if it does do that, when does it happen-right before things go bad?

[caryn]

The developmental curve of boys tends to be slightly delayed. That said, preeclampsia tends to accelerate developmental curves IIRC, because the placenta "knows" it has limited time. (Chemical signalling alerts the placenta to breakdown of maternal tolerance and causes it to speed up what it can speed up.)

But those are population averages and every kid is different. My 34 weeker - on the nose, 'cause I checked in at 33 weeks 5 days - was a wimpy white boy and spent only a week in NICU.

[lizard]

i wonder if it has anything to do with the male sperm being faster and quicker but the female sperm being slower but stronger? i remember when my son was born knowing that boys don't do as well as preemies, but he did great. i think what jasmin said, it depends on the age of the babe really. i wouldn't go down that road and start to worry about what if you have a boy etc. you will have a baby and you will bring that baby home. your mantra

[flori]

I also heard that girls do better when Gracie was born and it made me so hopeful. In the beginning when she was doing great, there was one level-headed nurse who said "this might just be the calm before the storm". We lost her only hours later.

[jean]

ok, thanks for the info!