# Care of the preterm or low-birth-weight infant

Care topic · id `maternal:preterm-lbw-care` · Maternal & Newborn Atlas · release `15708f235d73cd42` (public)

> General information from published sources, not medical advice, and not reviewed by clinicians. Check the cited source before relying on anything here.

The atlas's own text and curation may be reused under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/): credit the atlas, and do not use it commercially. See the atlas About page. Text quoted from a source stays under that source's own terms, given as the source's reuse\_basis. The atlas's reuse terms do not cover it. The downloads list each quotation with its source in third\_party\_quotations.

Browse, life stage: Newborn; Infant follow-up  

## In plain language

The care of a baby born early or small, from birth through the first two years. It includes skin-to-skin care with a parent, feeding with the mother's own milk, breathing support when it is needed, keeping the baby warm, and support for the family in hospital and after going home.

## Technical summary

WHO scope (2022): infants born before 37 weeks or weighing under 2.5 kg, in any health-care facility or community setting, from birth to 24 months of age. The WHO guideline has 25 recommendations and one good practice statement in three groups: preventive and promotive care, care for complications, and family involvement and support. The atlas records the WHO immediate KMC recommendation (A.1b) on the immediate KMC page; records for the other recommendations are not yet written.

## Connected pages

- Related care topic: Newborn thermal care (`maternal:newborn-thermal-care`)
- Skin-to-skin care for small and early babies: Kangaroo mother care (KMC) (`maternal:kangaroo-mother-care`)
- The WHO guideline on this care covers infants born before 37 weeks of gestation: Preterm birth (`maternal:preterm-birth`)
- The WHO guideline on this care covers infants weighing under 2.5 kg: Low birth weight (`maternal:low-birth-weight`)
- Related to: Antenatal corticosteroids (`maternal:antenatal-corticosteroids`)

## Provenance

Content hash: adbe9a84268c80bef393237d25c1173b1e56d9811441345905c9e8c71e70346b
Last substantive edit: 2026-10-12
Evidence last checked: Not recorded