Preterm birth remains the most serious complication of pregnancy and is associated with increased rates of infant death or permanent neurodevelopmental disability. Our understanding of the regulation of parturition remains inadequate. The scientific literature, largely derived from rodent animal models, suggests two major mechanisms regulating the timing of parturition: the withdrawal of the st...

The objective of this study was to determine whether inequality in stillbirth risk between social strata has changed over time. Subjects were all 288,869 births in Cumbria, northwest England, 1950-1993 and all 8,039,269 births in England and Wales, 1981-1992. Social class of Cumbrian babies was ascertained from birth registrations. Community deprivation scores were calculated from census data f...

OBJECTIVE Educational inequality in stillbirth has been documented in high-income countries and the province of Québec, Canada, but temporal trends are poorly understood. Our objective was to determine time trends in inequality related to maternal education for all-cause and cause-specific stillbirth over the past three decades in Québec. METHODS We included 2,397,971 live births and 9,983 st...

The association between a reduction in fetal movements (RFM) and stillbirth has been noted for at least 450 years. This was formalised from the 1970s onwards in a series of studies that noted the increased incidence of stillbirth and FGR in women presenting with RFM, which in some cases preceded intrauterine fetal death by several days. Interpretation of the literature relating RFM to stillbirt...

OBJECTIVE To determine if a previous caesarean section increases the risk of unexplained antepartum stillbirth in second pregnancies. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. SETTING Large Canadian perinatal database. POPULATION 158 502 second births. METHODS Data were obtained from a large perinatal database, which supplied data on demographics, pregnancy complications, maternal medica...

Stillbirth is fetal death after 20 weeks gestation 1 . There are a number of definitions and classifications. WHO defines a stillbirth as a baby BW e500g, e22 weeks gestation who died before or during birth. However for international comparisons it recommends that reporting be restricted to those with BW>1000g and gestation e28 weeks. In Ireland stillbirths must be registered, the definition be...

BACKGROUND Stillbirth is a major cause of perinatal mortality and occurs disproportionately in developing countries including Tanzania. However, there is scant information regarding the predictors of this condition in Tanzania. This study aimed to determine maternal and fetal risk factors for stilbirth in northen Tanzania. METHODOLOGY A retrospective cohort study was performed using maternall...

OBJECTIVE To determine if maternal country of birth is associated with the risk of antepartum stillbirth in late pregnancy. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS Retrospective cross-sectional study of all singleton births at 37-42 weeks' gestation, excluding those with congenital abnormalities and intrapartum stillbirths, between 1 June 2001 and 31 May 2011 at Southern Health, a large metropolitan...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether group B Streptococcus (GBS)-colonized pregnant women have an increased prevalence of GBS colonization in subsequent pregnancies. STUDY DESIGN This retrospective cohort study compared the prevalence of GBS colonization in initial and subsequent pregnancies of 158 women with two or more deliveries at a Midwest institution since the initiation of universal screenin...

the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of maternal inbreeding on incidence of twinning,dystocia and stillbirth in holstein cows of iran. calving records from march 2000 to april 2009 comprisingof 365,021 calvings on 153,802 cows from 86 dairy herds were used. the mean level of inbreeding was0.7%, less than 37% of all animals were inbred, and a small proportion (3.45%) of inbree...