Infants with a birth weight of less than 750g : maternal characteristics, survival, neonatal morbidity and development

Abstract

In this thesis follow-up studies on infants with a birth weight (BW) of less than 750g born between 1996 and 2005 in the Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital in Utrecht are presented. Attention was paid to maternal health issues, before and during the present pregnancy, fetal and neonatal survival, neonatal morbidity, neurodevelopmental and motor developmental outcome at 2 years corrected age (CA), 3.5 and 5.5 years of age, and postnatal growth. The total cohort consisted of 272 infants, of these 93 were intra-uterine deaths, 179 were live born and 146 were admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Cohort I (infants born between 1996-2000), cohort II (2001-2005), appropriate for gestational age (AGA, BW at or above p10) and small for gestational age (SGA, BW)