Death rates for extremely premature infants decreased from 2000 to 2011, according to a newly published national study.

The decline “was largely due to fewer babies dying from breathing complications of prematurity,’’ said Dr. Ravi Mangal Patel, lead author of the study, and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

Patel, in this GHN video, discusses the reasons for the decrease in mortality for these infants, and about prematurity in general, which is still a leading contributor to newborn deaths in the United States.

The study results are published in the Jan. 22 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The video was produced by Emory University.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/qc6llnfoNFQ​[/youtube]