whats the difference between early and premature?

[bumpsoon]

Spoke to a psychic friend today (yes i know) and she said this baby will come early ,any time after 36 weeks ,which tbh will be mighty inconvieniant ,especially as im 34 weeks now and DH is away weekend after next and then away the week folowing that out of the country ,on business ,not pleasure . So really what i want to know is if a baby is born at 36 weeks is it prem or just early and would i need to stay in hospital ?

37-40 weeks is early, and anything before 37 weeks is prem, I think.

A couple of my friends had babies born at 36 weeks and didn't have to stay in longer particularly, although one was only 5 pounds so was kept in for a bit longer to monitor her weight gain.

Sorry, I meant after 37 and before 40 is early.

Meant to add, I guess it would depend on the reason your baby was early as well

37wks + is term, although 37-40 is viewed as early.

Mine were;
ds1: 37 wks - 7lb
ds2: 36+6 wks - 6lb 13.5oz

ds1 was slightly jaundiced, and didn't wake up properly, or feed, for a couple of says, so we were in hospital for 3 days.

ds2 was born at home, and didn't need to go to hospital.

thanks for that ,ghouls . i have decided to relax about it all ,as my friend whilst a very good psychic ,does have a tendency to get her timescales a little off , this baby may well come 4 days early instead . I was planning on a home birth though and wonder what the cut off for one is ie after 38 weeks ? does anyone know ?

Right so to get home birth i just need to keep my legs crossed for the next three weeks . Of course the temptation is to get all the jobs done that need doing in the next two weeks ,but then i think that could well induce labour all by itself !!

when I had ds2 the home birth cut off was 37wks, but there has been some mention of 38wks on here recently.

My labour with him started at 36+6, and there was no way I was going anywhere (wouldn't have been time anyway). My m/w had agreed that she would come out to me from the start of wk 36 (given ds1 stats).

by "no way I was going anywhere" - obviously if there was any problems I would have gone into hospital.

so legs crossed and bloody mindedness

Thankyou by the way ,i feel so much better now ,both my other two were a few days over ,so the thought of this one coming at all early set me into a blind panic .