Pregnancy

Preventing Premature Births

Some studies revealed that about half a million premature births occur in the United States each year, at a rate that has been increasing by 27% every year since 1981, more often as a result of women postponing childbearing until age 35 or later to become pregnant through infertility treatments.

Although the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have reported that many of the methods used to stop preterm labor are ineffective, most health care providers and pregnant women are concerned if the methods are harmful for both the mother and the baby.

There are also home uterine monitors, which the ACOG has found not effective for predicting or preventing preterm labor, supporting a NICHD research. However, common methods for trying to stop premature births are widely known as effective, including bed rest and prescribed medications to relax those muscles in the uterus involved with labor and delivery.

Preterm labor starts before 37 weeks of pregnancy, when the baby is not fully-grown and it may not be able to survive outside the womb without proper care or because of the baby's health condition at this point of the pregnancy.

Planning your pregnancy along with your doctor is the best way to prevent premature births and give you the signs associated to preterm labor to work around them and try to save your baby if delivery occurs before 37 weeks. Identifying the symptoms, you can make an appropriate call to the doctor, if you experience any of these signs 3 weeks before your due date.

Premature births surpass birth defects as the leading cause of babies' death in the first month of life. This is also the major cause of lifelong physical and learning disabilities that increased prenatal care or improved measures to stop preterm births cannot stop, because the problems caused by the drugs that are used to stop premature labor.

There is a controversy evidencing that premature labor should not be stopped but the care focuses on saving the life of premature babies, while others consider that fetuses under stress in utero may start labor themselves and it is important to stop them until they reach optimal birth conditions.

Research has found that premature births occur in the United States in a rate that is twice the rates in most European countries. These births are the result of a preterm labor in more than 50% of the cases, while 30% percent of them are the result of spontaneous rupture of the membranes, and only 20% involve medically induced deliveries, aimed to protect the health of the mother and the baby.