Background: Developmental delay in preterm infants was estimated to be more common than term infants. Identifying the factors predisposing to developmental delay can help experts and health professionals in this field to prevent developmental delay of the infants, and leads to better management of the condition of them. This study aimed to evaluate and investigate the predisposing factors of de...

Birth of preterm infants is a stressful event for their parents, particularly for mothers. The mothers of preterm infants often feel hard to relate their infants because they have separated since their first days after delivery. Long term separation and less attractive, less responsive appearance of preterm infants also make it difficult to build mother-child relationships. In addition, the mot...

W orldwide, an estimated 15 million infants are born too early every year. The number of infants born prematurely has been increasing internationally during the last 10 years, and, fortunately, the progression of medical technology has optimized the survival of extremely preterm infants. Preterm is defined as infants born alive before 37 weeks of pregnancy are completed. There are subcategories...

“Late-preterm birth” refers to babies born between 34 and 36 weeks of pregnancy. During the past decade in the United States, the delivery of late preterm infants has increased by 14%. There are approximately 500,000 preterm births (births before 37 completed weeks of gestation), which account for 12.5% of live births in the United States annually. Of these preterm births, more than 70% (approx...

Improvement in neonatal care has led to increased survival rates of very premature infants. Accordingly, there are now more extremely preterm infants who are at risk of developing retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). ROP is a disorder of low birth-weight preterm infants and may lead to blindness. However, the prevalence of ROP varies globally, depending on different neonatal and ophthalmic care. T...

BACKGROUND Some etiological factors involved in developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) occur in the last trimester of pregnancy, which could result in a decreased incidence of DDH in preterm infants. The aim of this study was to compare the incidence of DDH between preterm and term infants. METHODS Ultrasound of the hip joint was performed in 2,534 term infants and 376 preterm infants withi...

Disabilities after brain injury in very preterm infants have mainly been attributed to noncystic periventricular white matter injury (PWMI). We analyzed spatiotemporal patterns of PWMI in the brains of 18 very preterm infants (25-29 postconceptional weeks [pcw]), 7 preterm infants (30-34 pcw), and 10 preterm controls without PWMI. In very preterm infants, we examined PWMI in detail in 2 axonal ...

Late-preterm infants, defined by birth at 34(0/7) through 36(6/7) weeks' gestation, are less physiologically and metabolically mature than term infants. Thus, they are at higher risk of morbidity and mortality than term infants. The purpose of this report is to define "late preterm," recommend a change in terminology from "near term" to "late preterm," present the characteristics of late-preter...