Maternal and Fetal factors and Short Term Neonatal Outcomes Associated with Late Preterm Delivery

Background: The primary cause of infant mortality and morbidity is still preterm births (PTB). In our nation, little research has been done on the prevalence of late PTB and related perinatal outcomes for patients receiving treatment in the intensive care unit. Aim: the aim of the current study was to determine predictors of unfavorable neonatal outcomes and to estimate the impact of gestational age on short-term neonatal morbidity and mortality in late preterm infants (LPIs) treated in the intensive care. Patients and methods: This cross sectional included 322 women whose deliveries were performed at Al-Azhar University Hospital in Damietta from August 2023 to August 2024. The following items were collected through interview meeting with the mother and her infant; sociodemographic (Age, Schooling and Residency), clinical-obstetric and perinatal characteristics Results: According to the neurological morbidities, Seizures represent 1.6%, Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) represent 2.2%, and Intra ventricular hemorrhage (IVH) represent 4.3%. The mortality rate in our study was 5.3%, all of them were from the age group 34 weeks (P =0.001). Logistic regression analysis revealed that, gestational age, Gender, and maternal DM were the only predictors for the respiratory morbidity (P =0.001 for all). A statistically significant association was found between the mortality rate and Respiratory morbidity, Neurological morbidity, Infections, Blood transfusion, Hypoglycemia (P =0.001 for all) Conclusion: It is critical to determine the factors that predict unfavorable short-term outcomes in late preterm infants for evaluating clinical practices and guidelines aimed at reducing infant morbidity and mortality