What is premature birth?
Q: What is premature birth?
A: Premature birth is when a baby is born before the normal end of pregnancy.
Q: How long does a normal pregnancy last?
A: A normal pregnancy lasts for about nine months or 266 days on average.
Q: When are babies considered premature?
A: Babies who are born before 37 complete weeks of pregnancy (calculated from the last menstrual period) are considered premature.
Q: What percentage of babies are born prematurely in the United States?
A: About twelve percent of babies are born prematurely in the United States.
Q: How many premature births were there in 2003 in the United States?
A: There were over 490,000 premature births in the United States in 2003.
Q: Why is it difficult to track worldwide rates of prematurity?
A: In developing countries, there is often no professional medical care for premature babies, which makes it difficult to tell how far along the pregnancy really was.
Q: What percentage of low birth weight deliveries are due to premature delivery in developing countries?
A: It is estimated that one-third of low birth weight deliveries in developing countries are due to premature delivery.
