Millennium babies

Sir, In a year when some people are already starting to question the exact date when the new millennium begins-some insisting, for reasons which elude, that celebrations should be postponed till 1 January 2001-1 thought it would be appropriate to tackle our speciality’s own chronological controversy, that regarding the definition of term. The WHO’ and FIG02 both clearly state that term is reached when a pregnancy has completed 259 days from the first day of the last period (37 + 0 weeks). I have realised, however, that there is a small, but insistent, minority of obstetricians who claim that when textbooks describe term as being reached at 37 completed weeks, this actually means 38 weeks. To assess how widespread was this misconception I conducted a personal survey of 100 obstetricians (73 registrars and 27 consultants) posing the following question: Pregnancy is said to be term when it has reached 37 completed weeks. Do you take this to mean: a) 37 + 0 weeks, orb) 37 + 7 (38) weeks? To my surprise, 31 of the 100 surveyed answered ‘b’ (37 + 7 or 38 weeks), which included nine consultants and 22 registrars. It can therefore be concluded that almost a third of those questioned considered any pregnancy less than 38 + 0 weeks to be preterm. I would agree that in practical terms this misinterpretation is of minimal, if any, importance, especially in light of the fact that even at 38 weeks (a week after reaching term) an infant born by elective caesarean has an increased risk of respiratory morbidity, compared with one born at 39 weeks?. However, I feel it is important to highlight this common misbelief, if only for epidemiological accuracy.