jackieI’m a Scientist is like school science lessons meet the X Factor! School students choose which scientist gets a prize of $1000 to communicate their work.
Scientists and students talk on this website. They both break down barriers, have fun and learn. But only the students get to vote.
This zone is the Organs Zone. It has scientists studying health and disease in various parts of our bodies. Who gets the prize? YOU decide!
Great question, jackie.
Mostly, we don’t know what makes babies be born prematurely, but we know a few things.
We know that if the mother gets sick, like a bad infection (not just a little cold), that sometimes the baby will come prematurely, and we think that this is because the mothers body is trying to prevent the baby from getting sick.
Mostly though, we really don’t know. There are lots of people here where i work who are working on this, trying to work out why it happens, and also trying to work out better ways to look after babies who are born prematurely. They have really done amazing things in the last 20 years or so, and now babies born at just 26 weeks (14 weeks early) can have a chance to live a normal life! Amazing!
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