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Bissinger RL, Annibale DJ Thermoregulation in very low-birth-weight infants during the golden hour results and implications. Adv Neonatal Care. 2010; 10:(5)230-8

Costeloe KL, Hennessy EM, Haider S Short term outcomes after extreme preterm birth in England: comparison of two birth cohorts in 1995 and 2006.: BMJ; 2012 https://doi.org/doi:10.1136/bmj.e7976

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McCall EM, Alderdice F, Halliday HL Interventions to prevent hypothermia at birth in preterm and/or low birthweight infants. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2010; 17:(3)

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Norman JE, Morris C, Chalmers J The effect of changing patterns of obstetric care in Scotland (1980–2004) on rates of preterm birth and its neonatal consequences: perinatal database study. PLoS Med. 2009; 6:(9) https://doi.org/doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000153

Office for National Statistics. Preterm births, preterm births data, press release based on 2005 data. 2005. www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-50818 (accessed 21 December 2012)

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paediatrics
assessment
management
clinical skills
patient care

Managing premature babies in the pre-hospital environment

01 January 2013
Features
02 January 2013
Volume 3 · Issue 1

Babies born at ≥ 37 weeks of gestation are considered to be born at term, therefore any baby born earlier than 37 completed weeks of gestation are termed as premature babies. A consistent rise in preterm birth rate has been noted around the world (Norman, 2009). Available statistics from the US show that preterm births constituted 12.8 % of live births in 2006; this is an increase of 20 % since 1990 (Muglia and Katz, 2010). The challenges that result from preterm delivery will vary depending largely on the gestational age and birth weight. The general rule is that adaptation of the newborn to extra-uterine environment becomes more problematic with smaller and less mature babies. It is therefore important to understand some definitions related to the gestational age and weight; these are highlighted in Table 1 (Beck, 2010).

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