If delivering before 34 weeks what are the chances my baby will be healthy?

It depends as babies in the third trimester develop at different rates. However, the average baby's lungs are not completely developed until between week 36 - 37. Hospitals give babies that are over 4 lbs a better prognosis than smaller babies and most infants are around 4 lbs at 32 - 33 weeks. No matter what, delievering before 34 weeks poses many risks and your child may be taken immediately after birth to be evaluated and supplemented with oxygen and fluids and nutrition...you can also expect your baby to stay in the NICU, but the length of time he/she would need to stay in the NICU depends on his/her progress. However, some babies are very mature at 34 weeks and have no issues and go home with mom from the hospital, but this should not be expected in order to avoid disappointment.

If you're at risk of preterm labor, then your doctor should be monitoring you closely and you'll want to spend the majority of your time resting with your feet up, staying hydrated, and avoiding sex. Also, DHA (an essential fatty acid in fish oil) has been shown to help with baby's brain, heart, and eye development as well as prevent preterm labor. There are many prenatal vitamins available that have DHA in them.

They say every day that you are able to keep baby inside is 2 less days the baby has to stay in the NICU, so take it easy and do as your doctor instructs.

Depends on how early you deliver and if you have been prepared for that. People that are in danger of premature labor normally get shots to help the baby's lungs mature. By 34 weeks the baby is pretty much fully developed, but his lungs are still maturing and weak. Doctors don;t consider a pregnancy full term until the woman is 37 weeks along, so 34 is pretty early. Anyhow, there are lots of cases when the baby will be born before the full term, especially if talking about multiples. At the end of the day it all depends on each baby. There are some that will be born premies and do very well, and some will need some or lots of NICU time before they can be released. Now, my friend just had a premie (34 weeks) baby was in he hospital for 5 days and then he could go home. They did have to take him back for checkups very often for the first couple of weeks (baby had severe jaundice when born and the doctors wanted to keep an eye on that) but other than that the baby was pretty healthy. He was only 5 lbs so he was pretty small, but still did well and now 2 months later he is very healthy. By the way, they were not prepared for that, so the mom never got the steroid shots.

Also, it seems like girls do much better than boys when they are premies. I'm not sure why, but I keep reading that everywhere.

At 24 weeks the baby has a 50% chance, at 27 weeks it goes up to 80% anf continues to rise from there. I've got a friend that has had 4 pregnancies, the first resulting in a daughter born at 26 weeks, she had to have heart surgery when she was born. She has some health issues but nothing noticeable and no one would ever guess she was a preemie, she is now 9 yrs old. Her next two did not survive, one made it to 24 weeks and the second was 20 weeks, both girls. The fourth was just born this past year, she almost lost her at 21 weeks, she had a cervical stitch put in and total bed rest. At 34 weeks the took the stitch out and she had her a few days shy of 36 weeks. She even has a few health issues but nothing like her sister. With proper medical care babies born early have a very good chance, anything past 27 weeks they have an excellent chance.

Babies can survive and be healthy after 28 weeks. Ofcourse it doesn't always work out that way and most babies need special care and will have to remain in the hospital until the doctors think baby is healthy enough to survive on their own(without incubators and breathing/feeding tubes etc...) But it is entirely possible to give birth 28 wks and after and have a good chance at being healthy,just too tiny to come home right away,and be healthy enough to live without all the extra precautions. They closer you are to full term the better the chances are of baby being perfectly healthy.If you are close to 34 weeks then odds are you will deliver a perfectly healthy baby that will be able to come home after the standard tests and hospital stay.

Um after 27 weeks they say its 50% chance the baby will live and be healthy. They would tell u to try to wait til at least 35 to 36 weeks but if thats not possible then they will give u a shot for babys lungs and baby will most likely be in a nicu but it depends on how much ur baby weighs