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...

Background: To study uterine prolapse during pregnancy and its effect on perinatal outcome; importance of Duhrssen incision in aiding vaginal delivery in prolapse. Methods: A retrospective study conducted by reviewing 49 antenatal women with uterine prolapse admitted in the labour room of Department of Obs. & Gynae at G.S.V.M. Medical College, Kanpur over a period of 3 years (201013). Results: ...

Preterm birth is the single biggest cause of significant neonatal morbidity and mortality, and the incidence is rising. Development of new therapies to treat and prevent preterm labour is seriously hampered by incomplete understanding of the molecular mechanisms that initiate labour at term and preterm. Computational modelling provides a new opportunity to improve this understanding. It is a us...

Preterm labour and resultant preterm birth are the most important problems in perinatology. Countless efforts have failed to establish a single effective treatment of preterm labour, partly because the mechanisms regulating the uterus and cervix during pregnancy are not well understood. New knowledge is needed to inhibit early progression of labour (uterine contractility and cervical ripening),...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of ritodrine sustained release capsules for maintaining uterine quiescence after successful treatment of active preterm labour. DESIGN Multicentre placebo-controlled trial. SETTING Five teaching hospitals in the Netherlands. PARTICIPANTS Women (n = 95) at less than 35 weeks of gestation in whom active preterm labour had been stopped with intravenous ritodr...

BACKGROUND Human cervical ripening is an inflammatory process. In labour at term the mRNA-levels and protein concentrations for interleukin-6 (IL-6) and IL-8 in cervix significantly increase. The aim of this study was to investigate if there are differences in the inflammatory process of preterm and term cervical ripening. METHODS Cervical biopsies from 50 singleton pregnant women without cli...

Objective: To identify different associated risk factors and to assess the neonatal mortality and morbidity in preterm births. Study design: It is a retrospective observational study conducted in the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Pediatrics in our hospital for a period of 5 years from January 2008 to January 2013. Results: The incidence of preterm birth is found to be 10.23%. Whe...

Preterm birth is the most important single determinant of adverse infant outcome, in terms of both survival and quality of life. Although preterm birth is defined as being before 37 completed weeks, most mortality and morbidity is experienced by babies born before 34 weeks. Prevention and treatment of preterm labour is important, not as an end in itself, but as a means of reducing adverse event...

The relationship between Pre-eclampsia (PE) and placental production of Adrenomedullin (AdM) is not completely understood. This study measured placental and fetal membrane AdM protein concentrations by specific radioimmunoassay and mRNA expression by Northern blot analysis in samples obtained at either term or preterm gestation from women either in labour or not in labour. Samples were obtained...

BACKGROUND Elucidation of the biochemical pathways involved in activation of preterm and term human labour would facilitate the development of effective management and inform judgements regarding the necessity for preterm tocolysis and post-term induction. Prostaglandins act at all stages of human reproduction, and are potentially activators of labour. METHODS Expression of 15 genes involved ...