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After a 30% increase in the US rates of preterm birth over the past two decades, the preliminary the respective 2007 and 2008 rates of 12.7% and 12.3% suggest an important change in the escalating trend. There is growing evidence that a substantial proportion of the increases observed in the past 15 years may be linked to unnecessary elective delivery prior to 39 weeks and quality improvement efforts to curtail these practices are demonstrating stunning reversals. Perinatal nurses can make a profound impact on the major public and clinical health problems associated with preterm birth if they assume the leadership roles needed not only to prevent late preterm birth but to provide optimal assessment and management of this growing cohort of vulnerable patients. This session will examine what we know about preventing preterm birth, what methods have been successful/not successful, and what can be done to prevent the preventable cases of preterm birth. Nurses can play a major role in these enhanced efforts at saving newborns from the ravages of being born too early providing a lot of hope for those families and communities. However, for many families the hope for prevention continues to elude researchers and until additional evidence-based interventions are identified, hundreds of thousands will continue to be born too soon, increasing their risks for chronic conditions lifelong.