Grant: Project Grant

Each year, 12 million babies worldwide are born when the pregnancy is between 32-36 weeks. This is too early and called moderate-late preterm (MLPT). MLPT babies are more likely to have problems with development and behavior than term-born babies. However, MLPT babies are mostly seen as healthy babies and not screened for these problems when they grow up. As a result, problems in children born MLPT are often only detected at school age, when therapies become less effective, and MLPT children may need to deal with the problems for the rest of their lives. If we understand better why MLPT born children have these problems, we can improve their care and lifelong health. We have found in a group of MLPT babies that delays in brain development seen in the first weeks after birth may lead to delays in the development of a MLPT child at the age of 2 years. Although this gives us important information, we do not know whether the early delays in brain and child development lead to the problems MLPT born children face in school. How well a child performs in school is a strong predictor of how well they will do later in life. Therefore, we want to study in the same group of MLPT babies whether the early delays lead to delays in brain and child development when children start school. State-of-the-art, non-invasive MRI of the brain will be repeated at 5 years in the group of MLPT children who had a brain MRI in the first weeks after birth. We will also repeat tests that look at a child's development at 5 years in the children who had these tests at 2 years. This will give us information on how MLPT children and their brains develop over time. We aim to find clues that help us to recognize MLPT children who will have problems with performance in school at a younger age. Our results will guide doctors and policymakers to make important improvements to the care of MLPT babies. The care improvements will lead to healthier brains and better lifelong outcomes for the many MLPT babies.