DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2016.v04i08.051

Pages: 2996-3001

Preterm is defined as babies born alive before 37 weeks of pregnancy have been completed. An estimated 15 million babies are born too early every year. The observed increase is primarily the result of the inclusion of a group of borderline preterm infants who have been classified as late-preterm infants (LPTI) since 2005, when the definition of late preterm was established as those infants born with gestational ages (GA) of 34 full weeks to 36 weeks and 6 days. late preterm group has 2 to 3 fold increased rates for mild to moderate morbidities, such as hypothermia, hypoglycemia, delayed lung fluid clearance and respiratory distress, poor feeding, jaundice, infection, and readmission rates after initial hospital discharge .Aim of this study was to identify the risk factors and pattern of neonatal morbidities and to compare it with term infants . A total of 110 live inborn late preterm infants and term infants were included in the study .Variables relating to the mothers, their pregnancies and their infants were analyzed. Analysis of the data showed that late preterm infants suffer a large number of complication during the neonatal period, especially low APGAR score , hypothermia, hypoglycemia, jaundice requiring exchange transfusion , respiratory pathologies, ,feeding difficulty , contributing to a neonatal mortality rate significantly greater than that of full term infants. Proportion of Gestational hypertension, Gestational diabetes, Resuscitation, oxygen support and mechanical ventilation were higher in late preterm infants than term infants but it was not significantly associated.