BACKGROUND Globally, about 15 million neonates are born preterm and about 85% of global preterm birth occurs in Asia and Africa regions. We aimed to estimate the incidence and risk factors for preterm birth in a rural Bangladeshi cohort. METHODS Between June 2007 and September 2009, community health workers prospectively collected data from 32,126 mother-live-born baby pairs on household soci...

Preterm birth is the leading cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality. Although the underlying causes of pregnancy-associated complication are numerous, it is well established that infection and inflammation represent a highly significant risk factor in preterm birth. However, despite the clinical and public health significance, infectious agents, molecular trigger(s), and immune pathways unde...

BACKGROUND Acetaminophen use during pregnancy has been associated with a reduced risk of stillbirth and preterm birth, but findings are based on few studies with small numbers of exposed women. METHODS To examine whether prenatal exposure to acetaminophen reduces the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes, we used data from the Danish National Birth Cohort. We also examined the combined potential...

The primary aim of this study was to investigate whether women born prematurely or with impaired fetal growth have a reduced probability of giving birth. Using Swedish population-based registries, the authors identified 148,281 women born in 1973-1975 for follow-up until 2001. Of these women, 4.1% were born preterm and 0.32% very preterm, 0.29% were born with a very low birth weight, and 5.4% w...

background bronchopulmonary dysplasia (bpd) is one of the most common serious squeal of preterm infants. it involves approximately one quarter of infants with birth weight less than 1500 grams and 30% of less than 1000 grams. vitamin a has been shown to reduce bpd rate. we compared efficacy of low and high doses of vitamin a for prevention of bpd in very low birth weight preterm infants. materi...

Spontaneous preterm birth includes birth that follows preterm labor, preterm spontaneous rupture of membranes, and cervical insufficiency, but does not include indicated preterm delivery for maternal or fetal conditions (5). The preterm birth rate (birth at less than 37 completed weeks of gestation per 100 total births) increased more than 20% from 1990 to 2006. However, decreases in birth rate...

There are well-established morbidities associated with preterm birth including respiratory, neurocognitive and developmental disorders. However several others have recently emerged that characterise an 'aged' phenotype in the preterm infant by term-equivalent age. These include hypertension, insulin resistance and altered body fat distribution. Evidence shows that these morbidities persist into...

BACKGROUND Young adults born preterm at very low birth weight start families later. Whether less severe immaturity affects adult social outcomes is poorly known. METHODS The study "Preterm birth and early life programming of adult health and disease" (ESTER, 2009-2011) identified adults born early preterm (<34 weeks' gestation, N = 149), late preterm (≥ 34 to <37 weeks' gestation, N = 248), a...

OBJECTIVE This study was undertaken to evaluate the influence of preterm birth and other factors on cerebral cortical maturation. METHODS We have evaluated the effects of preterm birth on cortical folding by applying cortical cartography methods to a cohort of 52 preterm infants (<31 weeks gestation, mild or no injury on conventional magnetic resonance imaging) and 12 term-born control infant...

This paper is the first in a three-part series on preterm birth, which is the leading cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality in developed countries. Infants are born preterm at less than 37 weeks' gestational age after: (1) spontaneous labour with intact membranes, (2) preterm premature rupture of the membranes (PPROM), and (3) labour induction or caesarean delivery for maternal or fetal in...