A series of papers in this journal and other journals over recent years has highlighted the fact that ‘near-term’ babies are disadvantaged, compared to ‘term’ babies, to a degree not previously recognised; Quigley et al have further investigated outcome in terms of subsequent school performance and found that near-term babies do markedly less well than those born at 37+ weeks. They also found that within the gestational age range of 37 up to 42 weeks, babies of 37 and 38 weeks do not do as well as those of 39 to 41 weeks. In the accompanying editorial, Neil Marlow further unpicks the artificial nature of the 1950 WHO definition of ‘Term’ as ‘37 up to 42 weeks’. If you are wondering how it came about that the WHO definition was invented, you should read the 1999 paper by Madar et al.