Preterm and sick newborns

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...

Care topic 0 claims Evidence checked not recorded

A long-lasting lung problem of babies born very early, also called chronic lung disease. The babies generally have inflamed or scarred lungs and need oxygen for longer, by nasal prongs, a mask or a...

Condition 1 claim Evidence checked 2026-10-15

A serious infection in the first days of life. A 2014 review calls early-onset sepsis a common and serious problem for newborns, especially preterm babies. Group B streptococcus is the most common...

Condition 0 claims Evidence checked 2026-10-15

A baby who is born small. The exact weight threshold depends on the source and is not recorded here yet.

Condition 0 claims Evidence checked not recorded

A serious bowel illness of newborn babies, most often seen in premature babies. The tissue lining the intestine becomes inflamed, dies and can slough off. The topic page used here describes it as the...

Condition 0 claims Evidence checked 2026-10-15

Birth before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy. The term covers two things: the baby who is born early, and the pregnancy that is likely to end early. Global guidance covers steroid injections before...

Condition 0 claims Evidence checked not recorded

Breathing trouble in a baby born too early. The lungs make a natural coating, called surfactant, that keeps the tiny air sacs from collapsing. A baby born early may not have enough of it, so the...

Condition 0 claims Evidence checked 2026-10-15

An eye disease that can happen in babies born early or who weigh under about 3 pounds at birth. Abnormal blood vessels grow in the retina, the light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye. Some...

Condition 0 claims Evidence checked 2026-10-15

A medicine injected into the eye that blocks VEGF, a protein that drives the growth of blood vessels. It is used for several eye diseases, including, in the United States since 2023, retinopathy of...

Drug 1 claim Evidence checked 2026-10-15

A medicine given to babies born early for apnoea of prematurity. In the CAP trial, caffeine given for this reason to very low birth weight babies lowered the share still needing oxygen at 36 weeks of...

Drug 1 claim Evidence checked 2026-10-15

The active substance in Curosurf: an extract of natural lung surfactant from pigs. It is one of the surfactants used for premature babies with respiratory distress syndrome.

Drug 0 claims Evidence checked 2026-10-15

Surfactants are medicines that replace the natural lung coating that preterm babies may lack. They are given into the windpipe of a baby with breathing trouble. The SUPPORT trial compared giving...

Drug 1 claim Evidence checked 2026-10-15

Pages about medicines and vaccines given in pregnancy, at birth, after birth or to the baby. Each page says who receives it, the mother or the baby.

Front Evidence checked not recorded

Pages about helping a newborn stay warm, breathe and feed, from help with the first breaths to breastfeeding.

Front Evidence checked not recorded

Pages about the blood, urine, questionnaire and newborn tests that look for a problem before or soon after it shows. Each page says who is tested and what the test looks for.

Front Evidence checked not recorded

Steroid medicines, dexamethasone or betamethasone, given by injection to a pregnant woman who is likely to give birth early. The medicine reaches the baby and helps the lungs mature, which can...

Intervention 7 claims Evidence checked not recorded

Starting skin-to-skin care within hours of birth, even before a small baby is fully stable, with the mother staying in the newborn unit.

Intervention 4 claims Evidence checked not recorded

Holding the baby skin-to-skin on the mother's chest for long periods, together with breastfeeding.

Intervention 0 claims Evidence checked not recorded

Magnesium sulfate given by drip to a woman who is likely to give birth very early, in the hope of protecting the baby's brain. In the BEAM trial it did not lower the combined risk of death or...

Intervention 2 claims Evidence checked 2026-10-15

Cafcit is the brand name that FDA's Drugs@FDA data give to caffeine citrate under application NDA020793: an intravenous solution that is prescription-marketed, and an oral solution that is listed as...

Product 1 claim Evidence checked 2026-10-15

A surfactant medicine for premature babies. FDA approved Curosurf in 1999 under new drug application NDA 20-744; openFDA now lists the application as BLA020744. Its US label says it is indicated for...

Product 2 claims Evidence checked 2026-10-15

Eylea is an injection into the eye, made by Regeneron, that FDA approved in 2023 for a new use: treating retinopathy of prematurity. Retinopathy of prematurity is one of five conditions on the Eylea...

Product 2 claims Evidence checked 2026-10-15

A bubble CPAP system for premature and full-term newborns up to 10 kg, cleared by the US FDA in 2010. FDA cleared it for use in hospital, such as a neonatal or paediatric intensive care unit, for...

Product 1 claim Evidence checked 2026-10-15

Breathing support for a baby who is breathing without a ventilator. A steady gentle pressure of gas is delivered to the baby, in one bubble CPAP system cleared for hospital use through a nasal...

Technology 1 claim Evidence checked 2026-10-15

A guideline from the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence on specialist neonatal respiratory care for babies born preterm, listed by the US National Library of Medicine's Bookshelf...

Guideline Evidence checked 2026-10-15

A guideline from the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence on preterm labour and birth. The US National Library of Medicine's Bookshelf lists two records for it, dated November 2015...

Guideline Evidence checked 2026-10-15

WHO's 2022 guidance on caring for babies who are born early or small.

Guideline Evidence checked not recorded

WHO's 2022 advice on giving steroid injections to pregnant women who are likely to give birth early.

Guideline Evidence checked not recorded

Whether the baby's temperature dropped too low at any point in hospital.

Outcome 0 claims Evidence checked not recorded

Whether the baby died in its first 28 days of life.

Outcome 0 claims Evidence checked not recorded

Whether the baby died in its first three days of life.

Outcome 0 claims Evidence checked not recorded

Whether a baby who was born alive died in the first 28 days of life.

Outcome 0 claims Evidence checked not recorded

The main report of the WHO ACTION-I trial results, published in December 2020.

Publication Evidence checked not recorded

The main report of the WHO Immediate KMC Study results, published in May 2021.

Publication Evidence checked not recorded

A large trial that compared waiting at least 60 seconds with clamping the cord within 10 seconds in babies expected to be born before 30 weeks.

Study Evidence checked not recorded

A US trial that tested whether magnesium sulfate given to women at imminent risk of delivering between 24 and 31 weeks would lower the risk of death or moderate or severe cerebral palsy in their...

Study Evidence checked 2026-10-15

A placebo-controlled trial in very low birth weight babies (500 to 1250 g) that compared caffeine with placebo, started in the first 10 days of life and given until treatment for apnoea of...

Study Evidence checked 2026-10-15

A US trial from the National Eye Institute that asked whether treating retinopathy of prematurity earlier gives better visual and structural results than conventional treatment. In babies with both...

Study 1 claim Evidence checked 2026-10-15

A trial in babies born at 23 to 31 weeks that compared milking the cord toward the baby with waiting before clamping. It was stopped early because severe bleeding in the brain was more common with...

Study 1 claim Evidence checked not recorded

A US trial of the Neonatal Research Network in extremely preterm babies, born at 24 weeks 0 days to 27 weeks 6 days. It tested two things at once: starting with CPAP or with a breathing tube and...

Study 1 claim Evidence checked 2026-10-15

A trial in 29 hospitals in Bangladesh, India, Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan. Pregnant women who were likely to give birth early received either a dexamethasone steroid injection or a dummy injection...

Study 1 claim Evidence checked not recorded

A trial in five hospitals in Africa and India that tested starting skin-to-skin care right after birth for small babies, compared with starting it after they stabilized.

Study 1 claim Evidence checked not recorded

A private foundation that funds global health research.

Organization Evidence checked not recorded

An organization that writes guidance for health and care practitioners. Here it is the issuer of two pieces of guidance: the guideline on hypertension in pregnancy (NG133) and the HealthTech guidance...

Organization Evidence checked not recorded

A US network of neonatal intensive care units that studies newborn care, especially for extremely preterm and very low birth weight babies. It was formed in 1986 and runs both observational studies...

Organization 1 claim Evidence checked 2026-10-15

The United Nations agency for international public health.

Organization Evidence checked not recorded

A risk tool for newborns born at 35 weeks or later. It combines objective information available at birth with the baby's clinical condition to estimate the risk of early-onset sepsis, so that fewer...

Resource 1 claim Evidence checked 2026-10-15

A suggested order for reading this atlas, from before pregnancy through birth to a baby’s first months. Each step points to one page and says in plain words what that page covers. It is a reading...

Reading path Evidence checked not recorded

Many babies born at the edge of survival now live, but bronchopulmonary dysplasia, a long-lasting lung problem, remains the most frequent complication of extreme preterm birth, according to a 2019...

Bottleneck 0 claims Evidence checked 2026-10-15

A research idea: keep a very premature baby in a fluid-filled bag, with its blood oxygenated through the umbilical cord by a machine, so that its organs can keep maturing without air breathing. In...

Idea 1 claim Evidence checked 2026-10-15

An untested question. Starting skin-to-skin care right after birth lowered deaths of small babies in a trial of immediate skin-to-skin care, which ran in five hospitals in Africa and India. Would it...

Idea 1 claim Evidence checked not recorded