background: premature birth is one of the most important unresolved reproductive health problems. premature birth is often traumatic and a source of distress for parents. increased parental stress during the first year of their infant's life is a risk factor for later behavioral problems in infants. objectives: this study was designed to compare anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and social suppor...

BACKGROUND Preterm birth is considered to be associated with an estimated 27% of neonatal deaths, the majority in resource-poor countries where rates of prematurity are high. There is no information on medium term outcomes after accurately determined preterm birth in such settings. METHODS AND FINDINGS This community-based stratified cohort study conducted between May-December 2006 in Souther...

OBJECTIVE Impaired blood pressure (BP) control may underpin the increased incidence of the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in preterm infants. This study aimed to examine the effects of preterm birth, postnatal age, and sleep state on BP control by measuring baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) across the first 6 months of term-corrected age (CA), when SIDS risk is greatest. METHODS Preterm (n = ...

BACKGROUND: Preterm infants suffering from intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) are at increased risk for neurodevelopmental impairment. Observational data suggest that recombinant human erythropoietin (rEPO) improves long-term cognitive outcome in infants with IVH. Recent studies revealed a beneficial effect of early high-dose rEPO on white matter development in preterm infants determined by magn...

Prosodic information, such as word stress and speech rhythm, is important in language acquisition, and sensitivity to stress patterns is present from birth onwards. Exposure to prosodic properties of the native language occurs prenatally. Preterm birth and an associated lack of exposure to prosodic information are suspected to affect language acquisition in preterm infants. Fifty healthy very l...

BACKGROUND Preterm birth is closely associated with neurocognitive impairment in childhood including increased risk for social difficulties. Eye tracking objectively assesses eye-gaze behaviour in response to visual stimuli, which permits inference about underlying cognitive processes. We tested the hypothesis that social orienting in infancy is altered by preterm birth. METHODS Fifty preterm...

Advances in neonatal intensive care have increased the survival rates of extremely preterm infants. Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), late onset sepsis (LOS) and suboptimal nutrition raise the risk of death and long-term neurodevelopmental impairment (NDI) in this population. Improving survival without long-term NDI in extremely preterm infants is a priority. Interventions that optimize enteral ...

We compared lymphocyte subsets and cytokine responses to bacteria among term, preterm infants, and adults. Lymphocyte subset percentages in cord blood (22 preterm, 27 term neonates) and peripheral blood from 21 adults and cytokine/chemokine interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12, interferon gamma (IFN gamma) responses to Escherichia coli, group B Streptococcus (GBS), Staphylococcus epidermidis,...

AIM Preterm infants display aberrant gut microbial colonisation. We investigated whether the differences in gut microbiota between late preterm and full-term infants results from prematurity or external exposures. METHODS This study comprised 43 late preterm infants (340/7 -366/7 ) and 75 full-term infants based on faecal samples collected following birth and at two to four weeks and six mont...

Background The proportion of late preterm births has markedly increased during the past two decades, accounting for 70% of preterm births [1]. There is evidence that monitoring not only the quantity but also the quality of growth, in terms of body composition changes, may play an important role in gaining further insight into the relationship between birth weight and time in utero on early grow...