Efeitos da prematuridade sobre o desenvolvimento de lactentes

The aim of this study was to evaluate the behavioral aspects of infants relating them to prematurity. A total of 130 lactentes were evaluated every month during the first year of life, employing the Operational Portage Inventory . Group 1, 56 newborns with no life risk at birth and Group 2, 74 premature babies, those that was born until 37 gestation weeks. The outcomes obtained showed that the premature babies (Group 2) presented a totally different performance than Group 1 in 68% of the analyses made, especially for motor development, cognition and socialization. The outcomes are in accord to the ones obtained in the literature, which indicate prematurity as one of the most harmful proximal conditions for the development of infants.