OBJECTIVE There are indications that the prevalence of exclusively breastfed preterm infants is decreasing in Sweden. The objective was to investigate trends in exclusive breast feeding at discharge from Swedish neonatal units and associated factors in preterm infants. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS This is a register study with data from the Swedish Neonatal Quality Register. Data from 29 ...

OBJECTIVE To assess parents' experiences and satisfaction with care during very preterm birth and to identify domains associated with positive and negative experiences of care. DESIGN Qualitative study using semi-structured interviews. SETTING Three neonatal units in tertiary care hospitals in South-East England. POPULATION Thirty-two mothers and seven fathers who had a baby born before 3...

Intermittent bursts of electrical activity are a ubiquitous signature of very early brain activity. Previous studies have largely focused on assessing the amplitudes of these transient cortical bursts or the intervals between them. Recent advances in basic neuroscience have identified the presence of scale-free 'avalanche' processes in bursting patterns of cortical activity in other clinical co...

AIM Extremely premature infants experience long hospitalisation and high readmission rates within 30 days of discharge. This quality control investigation retrospectively explored the impact of the Creating Opportunities for Parent Empowerment (COPE©) programme on these rates in an all referral, Level-IV small baby intensive care unit setting. METHODS The parents of 303 extremely premature in...

Methods and Results-—We measured casual blood pressures (BPs) in a population-based cohort of 6-year-old survivors of extremely preterm birth (<27 gestational weeks; n=171) and in ageand sex-matched controls born at term (n=172). Measured BP did not differ, but sex, age-, and height-adjusted median z scores were 0.14 SD higher (P=0.02) for systolic BP and 0.10 SD higher (P=0.01) for diastolic B...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to investigate the potential impact of gestational age (GA) estimation on the basis of the last menstrual period (LMP) in comparison with GA based on ultrasound examination on rates of survival and neonatal morbidity among extremely preterm infants. METHODS The Swedish national registry of infants born extremely preterm (Extremely Preterm Infants in Sweden...

The study by Cheong et al, 1 “Changing neurodevelopment at 8 years of children born extremely preterm since the early 1990s” in this issue of Pediatrics, once again reminds us of the challenges and limitations of follow-up studies. The authors have done a commendable job following 3 cohorts (1991 to 1992, 1997, and 2005) of extremely preterm infants from 22 to 27 weeks' gestation to 8 years of ...

OBJECTIVES The attitudes and biases of doctors may affect decision making within Neonatal Intensive Care. We studied the attitudes of neonatologists in order to understand how they prioritise different factors contributing to decision making for extremely preterm babies. DESIGN Twenty-five neonatologists (11 consultants and 14 senior trainees) participated in a Q methodological study about de...