Timing is everything when it comes to a pregnancy.
From choosing an opportune time in your life to plan a pregnancy, to using an ovulation calendar to determine a window when fertility is highest, to calculating the date of conception and due date, to impatiently waiting for your new bundle to arrive, keeping track of time is an important part of the process.
Of course, when it comes to children, all parents quickly learn to expect the unexpected. That first lesson often occurs if the baby arrives earlier (or later) than anticipated. If the baby arrives a few weeks before the due date or a couple weeks late, it is within a range typically associated with normal, healthy births. However, a baby born earlier than 37 weeks of pregnancy is at greater risk for complications including lifelong health impacts.
In honour of World Prematurity Month, this blog post explores what prematurity means, outlines some of the challenges premature babies face, notes some interventions that can lead to better outcomes, and explains how the Canadian Premature Baby Foundation is providing education, support and advocacies for these children and their families.
Defining Prematurity.
On average, pregnancies last between 37 to 42 weeks. Any child born before the 37th week of gestation is deemed to be premature. However, subcategories are used to determine the degree of the prematurity. Categories of prematurity include:
- extremely preterm if under 28 weeks of gestation (some sources use 25 weeks as the upper limit)
- very preterm if between 28 to less than 32 weeks of gestation
- moderately preterm if between 32 to less than 34 weeks of gestation
- late preterm if between 34 to less than 37 weeks of gestation
Generally, babies born after 24 weeks of pregnancy have a greater than 50% chance of survival. The likelihood of survival grows with each additional week of gestation and by the 28th week of pregnancy between 80 to 90 percent of premature babies survive.
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