Infant Development and Preterm Care

Preterm birth, defined as delivery before 37 weeks of gestation, affects roughly one in ten births worldwide and remains a leading cause of infant mortality and long-term disability. Researchers in this area study how early arrival disrupts the developing brain and body, tracking outcomes from survival in the neonatal intensive care unit through childhood cognition, executive function, and behavior into adulthood. Interventions like kangaroo mother care — sustained skin-to-skin contact between caregiver and infant — and broader family-centered care models have shown real promise in improving both physiological stability and neurodevelopmental trajectories, yet questions remain about how to implement them equitably across different health systems. A central challenge is developing reliable, scalable surveillance tools that can detect subtle cognitive and behavioral difficulties early enough to guide meaningful support for children born preterm.

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73,247

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837,226

Keywords

Preterm BirthNeurodevelopmental OutcomesInfant MortalityFamily-Centered CareNeonatal Intensive Care UnitCognitive Function