Do Preemies Benefit From High-Tech Measures?

My sister-in-law made the agonizing choice to "pull the plug" on life support for her ~24 week old preterm baby. The cute little guy gasped his last breaths our family's arms. To make matters worse, the cause was incompetant cervix, and the doctor had said 2 weeks earlier that my sis-in-law could not possibly be "dropping" even though she felt she had. The doctor did not even do a check at that appointment. What a terrible twist of fate that he was too busy to find the cause of the subsequent infant death.

But at least she can feel somewhat better now that studies show that keeping the baby on life support at that age would not likely have prevented the baby's death. This is valid, at least so long as the gestation age info was correct. I remember there was some vacillation +/- two weeks, which could have made a big difference.

The real question is: Why didn't the doctor take the time to check dilation? Needless to say, her next pregnancies (two) were monitored closely and both babies are walking around today.

Utah of UT 9:35AM October 06, 2009