Premature infants

Premature infants are babies born before full-term gestation.

A fair percentage of babies who are pre-term by estimation of a calendar due date have characteritics of full term babies. One study 3 comparing sonographic with menstrual dates from a large database found that only 78% of pregnancies designated preterm (less than 37 completed weeks) by menstrual dates were actually preterm, according to a confirming sonogram. (Klebanoff MA. Gestational age: not always what it seems.[comment]. [Comment. Editorial] Obstetrics & Gynecology. 109(4):798-9, 2007 Apr. UI: 17400838)