Progress in the frontiers of neonatology has continually pushed back the limit of viability and significantly improved the survival of extremely preterm infants. An important component of medical management before a preterm delivery is counseling the parents about probabilities of survival and long term complications.
Hypothesis: Preterm counseling is more effective when parents receive verbal counseling supplemented with written and pictorial information then verbal counseling alone.
Methodology: There will be two groups of study (verbal, pictorial and written vs verbal alone). All patients admitted to the L and D department of Stroger hospital between 23 to 34 weeks of gestation with threatened premature delivery will be enrolled in the study. They will be randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups. After counseling, parents will be asked to complete a 32 point questionnaire to check their knowledge of outcomes of prematurity.
To reach statistically significant results, the investigators will need 40 patients in each group. The study will be done over a period of one year
