Abstract

It has been customary to determine prematurity by birth weight alone, even though the shortcomings of this practice have been pointed out convincingly, for instance, by McKeown and Gibson.1 The World Health Organization has recently taken cognizance of this problem, realizing that its previous recommendation of a birth weight limit of 2,500 gm is but a temporary expedient while no better method is available to define, study, and manage prematurity. The new, brief report2 points out the numerical magnitude of the problem by stating that among infants of healthy, young primigravidae receiving good obstetrical care, only two-thirds of those weighing less than 2,500 gm are born before the thirty-eighth week.

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