Jennifer Daru, MD, Chief of Division of Pediatric Hospital Medicine at California Pacific Medical Center San Francisco, speaking here at the 2009 Pediatric Hospitalist Conference in Tampa, Fla, discusses the late preterm infant, ie a child born between 34 and 0/7 weeks and 36 and 6/7 weeks which carries up to 5-7 times higher mortality rate than a full term baby.

Reading:
Reddy UM, Ko CW, Raju TN, Willinger M. HYPERLINK “http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19564305?ordinalpos=9&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum”Delivery indications at late-preterm gestations and infant mortality rates in the United States. Pediatrics. 2009 Jul;124(1):234-40.
Ramachandrappa A, Jain L. HYPERLINK “http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19501692?ordinalpos=14&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum”Health issues of the late preterm infant. Pediatr Clin North Am. 2009 Jun;56(3):565-77.

Sponsored by The Doctor’s Channel