It s the billion-dollar problem causing serious issues for Australian children and raising alarms for policy-makers.
A new study by the Women and Infants Research Foundation and the Australian Preterm Birth Prevention Alliance has put the annual cost of premature births at $1.4 billion.
A quarter of the cost identified in the study, published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, comes from the educational assistance needed for children who were born premature.
The cost of premature births in Australia has been released in a new study, costing a whopping $1.4 billion (stock)
While many preterm births are unplanned or unavoidable for medical reasons, experts are concerned by a dramatic rise in avoidable early-term births.