I feel I must respond to Anne Hurst as I am a Neonatal ICU RN. Yes, the rate of premature infants has risen. Partly for the reason's she stated, but also partly because so many premature infant's are born to teenager's who don't seek medical attention for fear of their parent's anger. Or rape, or sexual abuse. Or a drug addicted woman sits out in the parking lot of the hospital doing crack or cocaine to bring on labor because she's tired of being pregnant. Also premie's are born to "infertile couples" who desparately want to love a child and will do anything they can to have a baby and then will beg us to "do everything you can to save our baby. We don't care what it takes". Little do they understand what they are putting their infant through, even though they are councilled by our physician's before their premie is born. No amount of describing what a very low birth weight infant, who is extremely premature will go through can disuade parent's from wanting everything done. Even when we tell them their infant is suffering because of what they are asking us to do. They simply, in many cases, will not listen to us when we are advicating on the infant's behalf. When we attend the delivery of an extremely premature infant, we wait to see how vigorous the baby is on it's own. But because of so many infant's, such as Ms. Hurst's, we have set up guideline's of which gestation infant's can be reasonably given a chance for survival. We have learned to let the infant tell us what is appropriate action to take, as far as it's little life is concerned. And let me reassure everyone, that this is not taken lightly. We hope with all our heart's to be able to give a family a very healthy infant to take home with them. And for each of our failure's, thank God, we have wonderful, inspiring successes. I know, because their parent's bring them back to see us, even into the child's teenage years. And the parent's remember each and every person who helped their child survive. Just to know that some of the infant's I cared for in the very early 80's are young adults now, fills me with awe. Not at what we in the medical community are capable of doing, but what abilities God has endowed us with to do the best we can for families. Yes, there are an inordinate number of premies born today. But the goal of every NICU in America is to be put out of business as far as premies are concerned, because of great strides in research and medicine to identify mom's who are high risk for delivering a premie and give them the best care possible so they are able to carry their baby to term. I am so sorry for Ms.Hurst's loss, which is obviously still very painful, but I hope if she were in that same position today she would be rewarded with a healthy baby to take home, to nurture and love.

Thanks for a great article featuring the difficult plight of the fine men and women of NOFD. As an NOPD officer with over 16 years I must repeat something I've said many, many times before and since Katrina: New Orleans would be a wonderful place to live if it wasn't so poorly managed. Unfortunately, the 'cleansing' that so many hoped for has not manifested. It looks to be "business as usual in the Big Easy". Nothing (or very little) is being done in the line of getting the city back on its feet. Most areas hard hit (which is much of the whole city) look just as they did the day after the storm/flood. One can drive literally for miles in various directions and see (again, literally) thousands of abandoned, destroyed homes, knowing that the people who once lived in them are nowhere near New Orleans but have (re)started life elsewhere. And the NOPD is getting ready to lose another 250-350 officers, now that money has arrived to pay their retirement benefits (which was what they have been waiting on to leave). I don't know brother, but it's not looking too good. Hopefully, some miracle will surface that will bring positive change. I meet people every day that tell me they are here because they came, fell in love with New Orleans and couldn't leave. They say they've never been anywhere like it on the planet. They're right.

Thanks for the post on the New Orleans firefighters who are indeed heroic.

I completely agree with the robust comments of Carlos, you cannot be too emphatic about the heck lousy moronic management of New Orleans that ran it into the ground.

Between Morial Junior and Ray Nagin, it was driven into the Southern spiral of graft, cronyism and good ole fellowship and a scary city to boot.

You cannot write a story about city employees without holding the Mayor and city council accountable.

The pay alone is a complete blot on the spirit of Louisiana and New Orleans and will need to triple or quadruple just to meet the citizen's standards.

I (emphatically) supported Ray Nagin because the choice was between 2 completely loony and laughable travesties and because I was fed up of the Landrieus' posturing and waste of time and carrying on.

The choice was between 2 laughable travesties aka bums. I am not sure if your very polite blog knows what a bum is, but we do in Louisiana.

You take care and we will follow the Firefighters story and try our best for them.

Thanks for all the efforts guys. We do appreciate you.

Bear with me for posting again--but regarding Carlos' comment--yes, prior to Katrina New Orleans did have her problems with corruption and poor management (which for me will forever be exemplified by pre-Katrina snafus, the photo of the flooded school buses providing an excellent visual) he mentions. Plus crime (which unfortunately has come back in a violent way even with the presence of the Louisiana National Guard and state police), bad schools, deep poverty, and other urban ills. Would it be too much to hope that perhaps after the storm an improved New Orleans (which would still have her one-of-a-kind cultural flavor without the serious flaws, as opposed to a bland "Disney World" version of that city that would look like anything you could find anywhere else in America) could come into being? I wish I could be optimistic about that...

The problem is that people in New Orleans, nearby Louisiana parishes, Mississippi's Gulf Coast, and other places damaged by storms (and not just Katrina and Rita, but all the others that have happened in the last few years) still need help even though on nightly newscasts they've been "out of sight, out of mind."

Back to New Orleans' culture. I'd like to see an update regarding how the Musicians' Village is coming along. I just bought a CD called "Sing Me Back Home" which was put together by the "New Orleans Social Club" in Austin, Texas. The New Orleans Social Club includes such stellar musicians as Dr. John, Cyril and Ivan Neville, and Marcia Ball--all of whom had been forced to evacuate from New Orleans by Katrina. Reading the review brought me to tears--it said, despite the hope expressed on the CD, that because of the upheaval in New Orleans, it was doubtful that these artists--and New Orleans' vibrant musical scene in general--would return. That's why I'm curious about the Musicians' Village--I hope it succeeds in bringing them back.

The men and women of NOFD and NOPD are just some of the many departments along the Gulf Coast that have been severaly damaged by hurricanes. Ever hear of Charley, Ivan, Dennis, Jeanne?
Besides, being a former resident of N.O. that city was a corrupted mess before Katrina, it was a disgusting city that was run into the ground with piss poor management. With some luck Katrina may be looked back in the history books as a giant spring cleaning event for a city that was/is founded on corruption. Until than I truly hurt for the good men and women who work there day after grungy day rebuilding their town and lives. Good luck to all of you up there on the Gulf Coast, not just N.O but the entire area.

The men and women of NOFD and NOPD are just some of the many departments along the Gulf Coast that have been severaly damaged by hurricanes. Ever hear of Charley, Ivan, Dennis, Jeanne?
Besides, being a former resident of N.O. that city was a corrupted mess before Katrina, it was a disgusting city that was run into the ground with piss poor management. With some luck Katrina may be looked back in the history books as a giant spring cleaning event for a city that was/is founded on corruption. Until than I truly hurt for the good men and women who work there day after grungy day rebuilding their town and lives. Good luck to all of you up there on the Gulf Coast, not just N.O but the entire area.

Thanks for that outstanding post on the struggles of the NOFD. As those heroic, hard-working men continue to "put on a brave face", they richly deserve not only Americans' support and prayers, but also the sort of iconic status the New York City firefighters had after 9/11.

NBC Nightly should air a good human-interest report on the difficult work faced by the NOFD--in spite of low water pressure, dwindling manpower, low pay, etc.--to fight the good fight against the many fires that torture drought-plagued New Orleans. Unfortunately, the way NBC Nightly's news judgment has been lately, it seems as if they wouldn't care to cover such a story unless it was out of the Gaza Strip.

Their current apparent lack of caring about New Orleans' problems makes me very sad. Last night, NBC Nightly, for the second time in approximately a week, aired a report out of Gaza which went into how people there are having trouble with electricity, water, etc.
Which is sad, but for a long time I haven't seen anything on NBC Nightly about, for example, the fact that 40% of New Orleans' homes are still without electricity. And that's only one of the myriad of hardships that afflict post-Katrina New Orleanians. It makes me very sad to think that someone ensconced in a comfy chair in New York far from the suffering in the storm zone has obviously decided that what people in New Orleans have been going through is no longer newsworthy.

The rise in multiple births due to medical interventions to conceive has contributed to preterm birth, as well as the rise of drug addicted babies.
The statistics have always been there, you only hear about it more now because they are saving babies earlier and earlier all the time and labeling them "Miracle Babies".
In Massachusetts a pregnancy is considered viable at 23 weeks gestation.
This was not the case when my daughter was born at 28 weeks 19 years ago.
Some doctors in the medical community have been rather naive and have reassured many women like myself that the chances of having another preemie were pretty slim. When in actuality once you have had one preemie your risk becomes higher and the next preemie is apt to be born even earlier.