Newborn is categorised based on Birth weight (BW), Gestational age (GA) and their relationship:
Gestational age
• preterm newborns (< 37+0)
• term newborn (37+0 to 41+6)
• postterm newborn (> 41+6)
Birth weight
• macrosomia (> 4500 g)
• normal (2500 – 4500 g)
• low birth weight [LBW] (< 2500 g)
• very low birth weight [VLBW] (< 1500 g)
• extremely low birth weight [ELBW] (< 1000 g)
Gestational age <> Birth weight
• appropriate for GA [AGA] (eutrophic)
• small for GA [SGA] (hypotrophic; BW is < 10.percentile for given GA)
• large for GA [LGA] (hypertrophic; BW is > 90.percentile for given GA)
MORTALITY
Mortality rates
- Perinatal mortality = stillbirths + live births that died during the first week of life (early neonatal mortality) for 1000 newborns
- Neonatal mortality = newborns that died since birth up to 28 days of life for 1000 live births
- Infant mortality = children that died since birth up 1 year of life for 1000 live births
Specific mortality = based on birth weight
Perinatal mortality = consequence of the most common perinatal complications:
- infection / sepsis
- congenital anomalies
- perinatal asphyxia
- hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE)
- peri/intraventricular hemorrhage (PIVH)
MORBIDITY
Morbidity = illness, deviation from the healthy status of a newborn
Early Morbidity
- respiratory distress syndrome (RDS)
- bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD)
- hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE)
- peri/intraventricular hemorrhage (PIVH)
- periventricular leukomalacia (PVL)
- retinopathy of prematurity (ROP)
- necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC)
- persistent ductus arteriosus (PDA)
Late Morbidity
- cerebral palsy (CP)
- blindness
- deafness
- mental retardation (MR)
- epilepsy
- failure to thrive
REFERENCES
① Brydges CR, Landes JK, Reid CL, Campbell C, French N, Anderson M. Cognitive outcomes in children and adolescents born very preterm: a meta-analysis. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2018;60(5):452-468. doi:10.1111/dmcn.13685