Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Pediatrics

Preterm birth rates continue to rise. Many reasons account for this increase, such as demographic changes, infertility treatments, increases in maternal age, more multiple gestations, increasing obesity rates, and maternal co morbid conditions. Suggestions have been made that preterm birth rates have also increased because of a dramatic rise in late preterm births, defined as births between 34 weeks and 36 - 6/7 weeks of gestation. Late preterm newborns are the fastest growing subset of neonates. Late - preterm births are considered functionally mature but, several line of evidences suggest that, compared with term neonates, they have a higher risk of complications. The present study was done to compare the incidence of major clinical complications of late preterm infants born in our division, compared to those born at term.This is a prospective cohort study conducted on 252 newborn born at Ghamra Military Hospital during 6 consecutive months Information was collected for every patient from neonatal notes and clinical observation of all infants. We studied the short term morbidities in late preterm infants compared to full term

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