Hi Jamie, this is an interesting question. There is data that suggests children born to single-parents are at increased risk of adverse outcomes. This is obviously not the case for all families in this position, but there is no doubt potential impact to household income, work requirements and the like. There is also potential negative impact if children are exposed to families in turmoil, i.e. exposure to 'Adverse Child Experiences'. As with most things in medicine though, it's rarely a single factor at play!

Hi Emma, yes, sometimes there isn't much time to have these discussions with parents. I would say, from my own experience at least, most would be present for stabilisation and make an assessment of the baby at birth. It's clearly a high-pressured environment, but we will always aim to act in the best interests of the infant. If they do not show a good response to initial measures, i.e. they don't have a good heart rate or response to initial airway support/surfactant administration, then it's unlikely they are going to have a good prognosis in the long run. It's generally accepted not to do CPR and give adrenaline at the limits of viability.

Hi İncinur, in short yes. Birth weight is also an important factor in prognosis, not just gestation. We often look after babies with severe intrauterine growth restriction and we know that their birth weight will have impact on complications. Even up to term, low birth weight infants worldwide have increased rates of complications.

Hi Svjetlana, so corrected gestational age is adjusting the baby's chronological age, for the impact of prematurity. So a baby born at 28 weeks gestation who is two weeks old, will have a corrected gestational age of 30 weeks. Similarly, in and older baby, for example a baby born at 28 weeks gestation who is now 12 months old, will have a corrected age of 9 months (i.e. 40 weeks minus 28 = 12 weeks adjustment). This is important when assessing growth and development.

You specifically mentioned about the 8 week check. In this regard, I do not believe there is strict guidelines. We would generally do a preterm baby's initial NIPE at around 34 weeks corrected gestation (as findings can be hard to interpret in younger gestation infants). They may well still be an inpatient 6-8 weeks after this. As such, you would just need to take a sensible approach as to when to repeat the exam, it would not be unreasonable to wait until 6-8 weeks post-term age to re-assess them.

Hi, in short, yes. I think this question came in just before my slide on this topic. The data suggests around a 3-fold increase, on average. With younger gestations having increased likelihood.

It is likely a bit of both. There will be certain intrinsic factors that may increase a persons likelihood of having preterm infants. However, there are aspects of obstetric care that can be implemented to closely monitor and adjust risk, e.g. aspirin use, cervical sutures, increased monitoring etc. There is also a lot around perinatal optimisation that can improve outcomes.