Due to advances in antenatal care and neonatal intensive care conditions, especially in developed countries, perinatal mortality of infants born under 1000 grams, and 22-25 weeks’ gestational age was decreased. In contrast, studies showed that at least 20-25% of these infants had functional limitations in one or more developmental areas, having different findings and requiring different services from early infancy until adulthood. The developmental problems of premature and VLBW infants causing function limitations and disability are serebral palsy, vision and hearing loss and severe cognitive problems. In the recent studies, the rates of severe developmental problems has been reported as 14-17%, and mild developmental problems has been reported as 50-70%.
Keywords: Prematurity, mortality, developmental problem