Defining the Neurologic Consequences of Preterm Birth

Each year in Australia, about 3000 babies are born very preterm - less than 32 weeks (est 15m globally). Neonatal medicine has made leaps and bounds in improving their survival rates, but behind the  “Miracle Baby” headlines lie stubbornly high rates of developmental problems, largely due to brain injury and disrupted brain development.

In an expert review in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), Monash University researcher Professor Peter Anderson, from the School of Psychological Sciences and the Turner Institute, with his co-authors, examine the factors that support or hinder brain development.

"Unfortunately, as a field, we are poor at predicting which children are going to have major developmental problems," Peter says. “However, we are slowly getting better at understanding how the different forms of brain injury and developmental processes are related to later learning, motor, educational and behavioural and social outcomes.”

To read the full article published by Monash University, please click here.