Premature Infancy Premature babies, otherwise known as preterm babies, or preemies, are babies that are born earlier than the full-term of thirty-eight to forty-two weeks of pregnancy. These babies are generally born between the twentieth and thirty-eighth week. Almost 250,000 babies, nearly seven percent of newborns, are premature(Golant 4). Prematurity, even with all the advances in technology, is still a major cause of fetal and neonatal death. Actually, around seventy- five percent of perinatal deaths are due to a number of problems associated with prematurity(Freeman 232). Premature babies are very weak and d