Infants, Intervention for Premature

Douglas M. Teti

Among the more than 4 million new births each year in the United States, 11% are born too early and 7% are born too small. Prematurity is a major cause of developmental delay. Four decades of research confirm that preterm infants, defined as less than 37 weeks gestational age (GA) and comprising 11% of all yearly births in the United States, are at higher risk than full-term infants for death in the early postpartum period, chronic medical conditions, and developmental delays in physical growth and intellectual and socioemotional functioning that can persist into the school-age years and beyond. These problems are more pronounced among very premature (< 32 weeks GA) and extremely premature (< 28 weeks GA) infants, the latter of whom have been found to be at extreme risk for developmental delay by 30 months of age (Wood, Marlow, Costeloe, Chir, Gibson, & Wilkinson, 2000). The very preterm infant ...

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