Late-Term/Post-Term

Neonatal Resources, the Podcast

Episode Description:

The first in a series of episodes looking at gestational age in the neonatal population. In this episode, we look at late-term and post-term babies, defined as 41+0/7-weeks or greater. Always the dyad expert, (and the only one of us not intimidated by these babies,) Darla helps us break down:

• What a late-term/post-term pregnancy looks like
• Risks for both mom and baby
• Assessment findings and expectations
• Developmental care for this gestational age group

We also get into the psychosocial implications for late-term/post-term deliveries that end up in a NICU stay as well as some of the “sticky bits” like, how much can we trust the dates we are being told and what does it mean for parents to have access to so much information?

Bibliography

Bannour, L., Bannour, R., Chahed, S., & Khairi, H. (2021). Prolonged pregnancy, incidence andmorbidity....14th European Public Health Conference (Virtual), Public health features in a changing world, November 10-12, 2021. European Journal of Public Health, Supplement, iii538-iii539.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020). Infant Health. Retrieved from National Center for Health Statistics: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/infant-health.htm

Goodman, D., Little , G., & Harrison, W. (2019). The Dartmouth Atlas of Neonatal Intensive Care. Hanover: The Trustees of Dartmouth College.

Kliegman MD, R. M., St. Geme MD, J. W., Blum MD, N. J., Shah MD, M. S., Tasker, M. M., & Wilson MD, M. K. (2020). Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics, Twenty-First Edition. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier.

Latif, S., & Aiken, C. (2021). Prolonged Pregnancy. Obstetrics, Gynaecology & Reproductive Medicine, 170-174.

Majola, L., Budhram, S., Govender, V., Naidoo, M., Godlwana, Z., Lombard, C., & Moodley, D. (2021). Reliability of last menstrual period recall, an early ultrasound and a Smartphone App in predicting date of delivery and classification of preterm and postterm births. BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth, 1-9.

Notes:

AGA (Average for gestational age) - A baby who falls between the 10th and 90th percentile on the growth chart

Cooling - A term used to describe therapeutic hypothermia, a process which brings the baby’s core temperature down, allowing the brain a chance to heal from hypoxic/ischemic injury

Dubowitz - A scoring tool used at delivery to estimate the baby’s gestational age.

EEG (Electroencephalograph) - A test which uses electrodes to measure electric activity in the brain

Growth Chart - A tool used to determine a baby’s weight, head circumference, and length in relation to other babies of the same age and gestation. There are several different growth charts, all of which may vary slightly, but your facility will have one that they use for their standard, allowing for an accurate assessment of growth over time.

IUGR (Intrauterine Growth Restriction) - A baby who measures below the 4th percentile on the growth chart

LGA (Large for Gestation) - A baby that measures above the 90th percentile on the growth chart

SGA (Small for Gestation) - A baby that measures between the 4th and 10th percentile on the growth chart.

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