“Do premature babies have developmental delays?”

it depends how prematurely your baby is born. Babies can be born viable from 24 weeks to term, and the earlier your baby is born, the greater the chance of a variety of developmental issues. But also, each gestational age can also lead to a normal outcome. It all depends on the complications associated with premature delivery.

General answer is yes, however, the degree of delay is dependent upon many other factors, for example, illness at birth, degree of prematurity, symptoms of brain involvement if present and many others. Best thing is to discuss with doctors taking care of baby at birth to judge possibility of developmental delay. Also, it is necessary to mention that there are lots of babies that escape any injury or delay.

Yes, this is unfortunately true. However, not all prematurity is equal. Some babies are more affected than others, and some minimal/unnoticeable. You can discuss with your neonatologist specific risks and what can be done to help best possible outcome. In general, steroids given to the mother before birth can promote extra maturation in the preterm fetus, but may make affect your blood sugars. After birth, mother's breast milk and skin to skin care can help offset some of the risk.

Not necessarily. A lot of things will determine whether a premature baby will have developmental delays or not. For example how many weeks at the baby was born, whether Mom received good prenatal care or not, place of delivery (level 2 NICU vs level 3 or 4 NICU), any associated complications etc... Bottom-line is the more premature the baby is the more likely to have developmental delays.