Yes, the only official terms are "term" and "preterm". I first heard the expression "near term" at an ILCA Conference a few years ago. While not an official diagnosis, there seem to be wider differences between individual babies in the 36,37,38 week babies that with the 34-36 or 38-41 weekers. Unfortunately, what we see often is that when a baby is in that 36-38 range and looks great the first day or so, too many docs go ahead and treat them like term babies. True, they don't need the support mechanisms (oxygen, assisted breathing, drugs to keep breathing and heart rate WNL etc.) that babies a couple weeks earlier often need, but they can't be expected to be just like either earlier or later babies. I think the "near term" expression came about as a way of saying, "Look, these kiddos need a different approach to care than either full term or earlier ones do." So let's not get sidetracked with debate over terminology. Let's concentrate on the original intent of earlier postings - how do we best meet the needs of these babies and their moms? What follow-up is needed? etc. Winnie *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html