Making Exceptions: Your Premature Baby
If your baby was born prematurely – before 36 weeks’ gestation – she’ll probably be very small. Missing out on time in the womb means missing out on growing time and some getting-ready-for-independent-life time. The more weeks inside the womb your baby misses, the more difficulties she’s likely to face. A baby born after 37 weeks’ gestation will probably need only a little extra help – being kept in an incubator with extra warmth, extra oxygen, and tiny feeds of breast milk at frequent intervals. A baby born earlier than 37 weeks’ gestation may need more help, as she may not have developed the capacity for independent life. She may be fed by a tube passed down her nose into her stomach if she cannot suck or swallow and she may have a respirator to breathe for her.
As your baby develops, you will need to allow for her prematurity. As an example, take a baby who was born at 34 weeks – in other words, 6 weeks early. Although her birthday is the day she was born, and therefore 6 weeks later she is 6 weeks old, she will not be comparable with full-term 6-week-old babies until 6 weeks after her expected rather than actual date of delivery. Your health visitor will keep your preterm baby’s gestational, or corrected, age in mind right through the first 2 years of life, although the significance of this age will gradually diminish: There’s an enormous difference between a 3-month-old baby and a prematurely born 3-month-old baby whose corrected aged is only 3 weeks. But the difference between the two babies will be much less noticeable by the time they reach their second birthdays.
Posted in Children's Health
