The Late Preterm Infant

Abstract

Late preterm refers to infants born between 34 0/7 weeks and 36 6/7 weeks gestational age. In 2005, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development introduced this nomenclature to replace the previous descriptor “near term” to more accurately categorize this group as preterm and at risk for requiring specialized care and monitoring. Late preterm infants are often comparable in birth weight and appearance to term infants and may be in the well-baby nursery or with their mother after birth, but they are physiologically immature in a number of domains rendering them medically vulnerable in comparison to term infants. While late preterm birth does not carry nearly as high a risk of severe neonatal morbidities and neurodevelopmental impairment as very preterm birth, this is a population at risk for early medical complications and later developmental and behavioral difficulties.