What Is Prematurity?
Premature babies (often called “preemies”) are babies who are born before the 37th post-conceptional week. Normal (full-term) babies are born between the 38th and 42nd week. Often a preemie’s age is defined by the number of post-conceptional weeks until the day the baby actually should have been born (which is in the 40th week of normal gestation). Also later in life, medical professionals often don’t count a preemie’s premature time in calculating his/her age and defining appropriate growth and developmental level, because a preemie isn’t yet fully developed for delivery when he/she is born.