Like never before, giving birth and having a child is becoming a most difficult process. Magazine pages are splashed with ads of a little blonde-haired girl saying “Autism Speaks.” Women with conceiving difficulties can turn to in vitro fertilization. Children with developmental handicaps are brought to programs like Early Intervention.

And as if this situation couldn’t get any harder, it does. On Tuesday, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a new study revealing that premature babies, infants born three weeks or more before their due date, could have more risks than thought before. According to the results, premature babies have more of a chance of dying during childhood and less of chance of having children after surviving and becoming an adult.

The US News and World Report said yesterday, “preterm births now account for nearly 13 percent of all U.S. births, compared with 9 percent 25 years ago.” Preemie babies are often a result of the rise of fertility treatment use. While in vitro fertilization and intrafallopian transfers are amazing solutions for women who cannot conceive naturally, maybe a study needs to focus on these practices instead of just premature babies.

There is no way to guarantee a baby will last full-term pregnancy. But with a rise of fertility treatments and preemies, it seems to be more than a coincidence. While parents across the world face challenges dealing with their children, this may be a problem that roots before the pregnancy. If the source of the problem is in the method of conception, then studying just a baby is too late of a start…it needs to begin when the baby is merely a thought.

If premature babies start a cycle, the problem could become even worse. Of course, hopefully the children will survive and live a healthy life. If these individuals then run into problems having children, they might try the same methods, which were used for their own conception. And so begins a never-ending, progressively worse problem…with no solution? This brings new meaning to the way parents will care and worry about their children, and their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren.