Since when is deliving at 36 wks a 'preemie'???

[SueM in MN]

Gee, I'll have to tell DW she has been telling hundreds of patients the wrong thing for 20 years. She'll be possitively mortified.

She is right, but it's not calendar months, it's 10 lunar months.
A lunar month is 28 days, a calendar month varies. So, they don't line up the same and the 9 months is counted from the first day of the last normal menstrual period (so, the count starts when you are not really pregnant anyway - and everything assumes a "normal" 28 day cycle).

 

[Simba's Mom]

The main thing that has changed is our standards about what we can do. Neonatology, as a speciality, didn't exist until 1975. In 1978, we didn't even know what caused respiratory distress syndrome in premature infants. Now we can effectively treat it and sometimes prevent it.

I work with doctors who treated infants in the 70's, and a much higher level of infant mortality was accepted as "just the way things were." Now that we can do so much, we expect much more.

So the relaxing you could do in 1978 when you reached 35 weeks was about the same as the relaxing you can do now when you reach 32 weeks. You've moved from the stage where you have a good possibility of delivering a critically ill infant who may not even live to the stage where 95% of the time we can effectively treat the infant.

Nowadays, getting to 35 weeks means that an otherwise healthy infant has an essentially 100% chance of surviving. So, even though the mortality rate at 37 weeks may only be tenths of a percentage points greater than 38 weeks, it's no longer considered acceptable to ignore that risk.

If you work with doctors that worked in Neotatology in the 70's, there might be a reasonable chance they worked with our son. He spent 4 months in 2 of the few Neonatal units in Massachusetts in the 70's (Boston and Worcester).

 

[lovedvc]

My oldest son was delivered by c-section at 36 weeks. He weighed 7.1 lbs and was 19.5 inches long. The doctors never even mentioned the word preemie. He went home when I did. At 8 wks old he weighed 13 lbs, he was a little roly poly.

 

[mookie]

The term "preemie" is not a set in stone gestational date.

I work in early childhood and we do not note anything early unless it's at 34 weeks or earlier (six weeks is considered preemie in our field).

I had a 43 week pregnancy (a 10 pounder) and a 35 week (a 5 pounder). Neither one of my kids would be noted as an abnormal pregnancy based on our early childhood standards.

DD (the 35 weeker) went home from the hospital after 2 days, no lung issues, no jaundice.....but at 1 month had digestive issues and was hospitalized (in a children's hospital w/newborns twice her size). She's a healthy, happy six year old now!

I agree with this. My dd was born at 35 weeks, was 6 lbs 1 oz, and had no problems at all, so she has never been truly considered a preemie. She is a totally healthy 3 year old today. I am now pregnant with my 2nd, and in my 33rd week. I just went for an OB check today. I have a history of preterm labor (had it with dd at 31 weeks) so they know that I will probably go early. I am already dilated 1 cm, so I am on bedrest now, but my OB said as long at I make it to at least 34-35 weeks, they will let me go if labor continues. My OB's belief is that the baby's lungs will be developed by then, and that, coupled with his large size (we are expecting a possible 9lb baby if we went full term) will be okay for the baby if I do go early.

So, according to my OB today, it's a combination of both birthweight, and lung functionality if they consider a baby a preemie or not.

 

[skuttle]

I had DS at 35w6d. Because he was delivered BEFORE 36w, I had to have him in the delivery room with tons of people around instead of just in the room with my doctor and a couple of nurses. DS was 6lb7oz, never spent a minute in NICU and has never been called a preemie, but I assume maybe technically he was since the hospital required me to have him in the delivery room (my doctor would have let me have him in the room, but hospital said no).

 

[PoohHappens]

I am a labor and delivery nurse and also work in the high risk pregnancy unit-- by definition preterm is anything before 37 weeks, the infant may not have any problems or may have breathing problems. Most before 37 weeks have a less developed suck/swallow and sometimes need some extra help learning to breastfeed. There are babies of all sizes born at 36 weeks and some do really well with no problems and others have serious breathing problems or other issues realted to prematurity. If you go into labor on your own after 35 weeks we will generally not do anything to stop that, however we will not do anything to encourage it either. That is why your doctors have generally made the comments about once your are past 35 weeks its OK. It is all based on benefits versus risks. We sometimes deliver babies very early because of medical problems with the mom or the baby. In those cases the benefit of delivery outways the risk of prematurity. Pregnancy is measured in weeks, and at this time 24 weeks is usually considered the age of viability. The gestation at which we can try to medically intervene if born.

 

[goofy!]

Ah..ok. I know that 40 wks is full term, but I had no idea that 36 wks was considered a 'preemie'.

I hear 'preemie' and I think of NICUs TOV

My first two children were born at 36 weeks and 35 1/2 wks. DD spent 1 month in the NICU and special care nursery - came home on 2.5 ltr of oxygen. DS spent two and a half weeks in the NICU. Although DD had other medical issues, DS's stay in the NICU was primarily preemie related. He had chylous ascites - where the lymphatic system was not completely developed yet and he was draining chyle in his abdomen.

My third child was born at 37 weeks - right after being taken off terbutaline - he got to come home the next day.

What a difference a week gestation can make!

And DS (35.5 weeks) was 7lb 8oz. Docs said he would have been waaay over 10lbs if he went full term. And no gestational diabetes.

 

[Alice28]

PRobably just repeating here, but my OB reiterated that anything before 37 weeks is considered premature. My 2nd child was over 11#s at 39 weeks, and when I was pregnant with my 3rd, my OB didn't really want my to go past 37 weeks for fear of me having to deliver such a big baby again. (Yes, I did it, it wasn't fun. He also had glucose problems and breathing problems simply because he was so big. I didn't have diabetes and only gained 25 or so pounds).

Anyway, with my 3rd, at exactly 37 weeks they had me go in for an amnio, because even then the baby's lungs might not be mature. Luckily for me, there wasn't a high enough level of amniotic fluid to do the draw (I was a little tense about it!), so I was admitted anyway to be induced due to low amniotic fluid levels and the fact that she measured at 7 pounds at 35 weeks. She was 8 1/2 pounds. And she was a bit 'sleepy' those first couple weeks, which the lactation nurses, and the pediatrician attributed to her being a couple weeks early. I was like, "But she wasn't premature, she was 37 weeks!" And they said that even though that's considered term, some babies born at 37, 38 weeks are sleepier than 39,40, 41 week babies and are not as vigorous suckers. She lost a pound that took forever for her to get back on!

And those are my .02! More like .10!