Multidisciplinary Guidelines for the Care of Late Preterm Infants

Of the 500,000 babies born prematurely each year, 75 percent are late preterm infants born between 34 and 36 6/7 weeks. Because these babies often look and seem normal, at least at first, much less attention is focused on this group than on babies born more prematurely.

In response to increasing awareness of the very real risks for late preterm infants, the National Perinatal Association has worked in collaboration with many partners across the spectrum of care, to create multidisciplinary guidelines that provide evidence-based recommendations for the care of late preterm infants.

These guidelines give healthcare providers and others a road map that focuses attention on the unique needs of late preterm infants from birth through early childhood, helping to ensure potential health risks aren't overlooked.

Access the guidelines in the Journal of Perinatology:

Multidisciplinary guidelines for the care of late preterm infants

R M Phillips, M Goldstein, K Hougland, R Nandyal, A Pizzica, A Santa-Donato, S Staebler, A R Stark, T M Treiger, and E Yost, on behalf of The National Perinatal Association.

J Perinatol. 2013 Jul; 33(Suppl 2): S5–S22. Published online 2013 Jun 27.

See the guidelines in booklet form: LatePretermGuidelinesNPA.pdf

The guidelines are formatted into four distinct sections for easy review:

In-Hospital Assessment and Care
Transition to Outpatient Care
Short-Term Follow-Up Care
Long-Term Follow-Up Care

Additionally, within each section you will find detailed information for Healthcare Team Actions and for Family Educations in the following categories:

Stability
Screening
Safety
Support

Thank you to our Collaborating Partners, without whom the guidelines would not reflect the truly multidisciplinary focus.

Additionally, we would like to acknowledge the following Endorsing Organizations whose acceptance of these guidelines provide further evidence to the truly multidisciplinary value of this tool.