ICD-9 Code 644.03

Threatened premature labor, antepartum condition or complication

Not Valid for Submission

644.03 is a legacy non-billable code used to specify a medical diagnosis of threatened premature labor, antepartum condition or complication. This code was replaced on September 30, 2015 by its ICD-10 equivalent.

ICD-9: 644.03
Short Description:Thrt prem labor-antepart
Long Description:Threatened premature labor, antepartum condition or complication

Convert 644.03 to ICD-10

The following crosswalk between ICD-9 to ICD-10 is based based on the General Equivalence Mappings (GEMS) information:

  • O60.02 - Preterm labor without delivery, second trimester
  • O60.03 - Preterm labor without delivery, third trimester

Code Classification

  • Complications of pregnancy, childbirth, and the puerperium (630–679)
    • Complications mainly related to pregnancy (640-649)
      • 644 Early or threatened labor

Information for Medical Professionals

Code Edits

The Medicare Code Editor (MCE) detects and reports errors in the coding of claims data. The following ICD-9 Code Edits are applicable to this code:

Information for Patients


Preterm Labor

Preterm labor is labor that starts before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy. It can lead to premature birth. Premature babies may face serious health risks.

Symptoms of preterm labor include:

  • Contractions every 10 minutes or more often
  • Leaking fluid or bleeding from the vagina
  • Feeling of pressure in the pelvis
  • Low, dull backache
  • Cramps that feel like menstrual cramps
  • Abdominal cramps with or without diarrhea

If you think you might be having preterm labor, contact your health care provider.

NIH: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development


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ICD-9 Footnotes

General Equivalence Map Definitions
The ICD-9 and ICD-10 GEMs are used to facilitate linking between the diagnosis codes in ICD-9-CM and the new ICD-10-CM code set. The GEMs are the raw material from which providers, health information vendors and payers can derive specific applied mappings to meet their needs.

  • Approximate Flag - The approximate flag is on, indicating that the relationship between the code in the source system and the code in the target system is an approximate equivalent.
  • No Map Flag - The no map flag indicates that a code in the source system is not linked to any code in the target system.
  • Combination Flag - The combination flag indicates that more than one code in the target system is required to satisfy the full equivalent meaning of a code in the source system.