Background:  Extremely premature births are known to be associated with major comorbidities. Recent changes in NICU practice such as in-house fellow care around the clock and Newborn Individualized Developmental Care Program (NIDCAP) with early intervention by occupational, feeding and physical therapy are expected to have improved at least short-term neonatal outcomes.

Aim: To investigate the changes over time of the short term outcome of preterm infants less than 29 weeks of gestation at the AUBMC neonatal intensive care unit..

Design: Retrospective observational study comparing two time periods between January 2007 and December 2016. The cutoff time is the institution of neonatology fellowship program then the implementation of NIDCAP at AUBMC. All 129 charts of infants born below 29 weeks will be reviewed and the rates of in-hospital mortality and short-term morbidities will be compared between the two eras. 

Retrospective review