Case scenarios for risk assessment
| Case letter and brief summary (abbreviation used in text) | Description of case as provided to respondents in the survey | Summary of case | Authors’ interpretation of risk categorisation | ||
| Gestational age | Favourable risk factors | Unfavourable risk factors | |||
| A 23+3 weeks, favourable risk factors (23+3F) | A mother has gone into extremely preterm labour at 23+3 weeks’ gestation. She is in a hospital with a NICU and has received a full course of steroids. The fetus is a singleton, has normal growth (estimated fetal weight of 590 g) and is known to be female. | 23+3 midweek | NICU Normal Growth Steroids Female Singleton | High to moderate | |
| B 25+0 weeks, unfavourable risk factors (25+0U) | A mother has gone into extremely preterm labour at 25+0 weeks’ gestation, with a twin pregnancy. She is currently in a local hospital and has had no steroids. Both twins are male and have growth restriction (estimated fetal weight of twin 1 is 520 g and estimated fetal weight of twin 2 is 560 g). | 25+0 Beginning of week | Local hospital Growth restriction No steroids Male Twins | High | |
| C 22+6 weeks, favourable risk factors (22+6F) | A mother has gone into extremely preterm labour at 22+6 weeks’ gestation. She is currently in a hospital with a NICU and has had a full course of steroids. The male fetus is a singleton and has normal growth (estimated fetal weight 600 g). | 22+6 End of week | NICU Normal growth Steroids Singleton | Male | High |
| D 22+3 weeks, favourable risk factors (22+3F) | A mother has gone into extremely preterm labour at 22+3 weeks’ gestation. She is currently in a hospital with a NICU and has received a full course of steroids. The fetus is a singleton, normally grown. (estimated fetal weight 500 g) and is known to be female. | 22+3 Midweek | NICU Normal growth Steroids Singleton Female | Extremely high to high | |
| E 23+4 weeks, unfavourable risk factors (23+4U) | A mother has gone into extremely preterm labour at 23+4 weeks gestation. She is currently in a local hospital and has had no steroids. The fetus is a singleton, with growth restriction (estimated fetal weight 450 g) and is known to be male. | 23+4 Midweek | Singleton | Local hospital Growth restriction No steroids Male | Extremely high |
Details of cases as provided in the survey, a summary of the favourable and unfavourable risk factors (not provided to respondents) and authors’ interpretation of risk category according to the BAPM framework (not provided to respondents). Red text indicates unfavourable risk factors, orange text indicates intermediate risk and green text indicates favourable risk factors. Each case has been given an abbreviation (used further in the main text) of the gestational age followed by U or F, depending whether there is a majority of unfavourable (U) or favourable (F) risk factors.
NICU, neonatal intensive care unit.