Predicting preterm delivery and lowering very preterm delivery rate
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Živa Novak-Antolič
Abstract
The chances and quality of survival depend on gestational age at birth. Why has PTD not decreased during the last decade, in spite of all the known risk factors? Perinatal data bases tend to include biomedical risk factors and are assembled and analysed retrospectively. These data should form the basis for prediction, and risk factors such as stress, anxiety, inflammation (leading to elevated CRH with its role in PTD), short cervix etc, should be added when assessed prospectively. The goal is preconception and early prediction in pregnancy. Only with the implementation of efficient intervention will we lengthen pregnancies and lower the VPTD rate. More articles about the PTD and complications of preterm births should be published in the lay press. There is no room for pessimism: if everybody involved would do just a little in the right direction, the result would be enormous. Constant auditing of interventions is necessary. The most difficult to “cure” and most likely to relapse are stress, anxiety and social factors, and discrimination in obtaining basic health care. Long forgotten lessons of compassion with pregnant women have not yet been acknowledged as proven to change VPTD into PTD, but are available at no cost world wide.
Copyright © 2001 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG
Articles in the same Issue
- Author Index
- Subject Index
- Contents
- Fetal and maternal energy metabolism during labor in relation to the available caloric substrate
- Incidence of meconium aspiration syndrome in term meconium-stained babies managed at birth with selective tracheal intubation
- Predicting preterm delivery and lowering very preterm delivery rate
- Comparative effects of chronic exposure to glucose or sodium butyrate on surfactant development in fetal rabbits
- Eigenvector based spatial filtering of fetal biomagnetic signals
- Localization and quantification of adhesion molecule expression in the lower uterine segment during premature labor
- Is intrapartum vibroacoustic stimulation an effective predictor of fetal acidosis?
- Plasma adrenomedullin levels in pregnancies with appropriate for gestational age and small for gestational age infants
- Tissue concentrations of cytokines in the lower uterine segment during preterm parturition
- Effect of labor on maternal dehydration, starvation, coagulation, and fibrinolysis
- Changes in light-induced fluorescence of cervical collagen in guinea pigs during gestation and after sodium nitroprusside treatment
- Cardiotocography or Doppler in making delivery decision?
- Book review
- Congress Calendar
Articles in the same Issue
- Author Index
- Subject Index
- Contents
- Fetal and maternal energy metabolism during labor in relation to the available caloric substrate
- Incidence of meconium aspiration syndrome in term meconium-stained babies managed at birth with selective tracheal intubation
- Predicting preterm delivery and lowering very preterm delivery rate
- Comparative effects of chronic exposure to glucose or sodium butyrate on surfactant development in fetal rabbits
- Eigenvector based spatial filtering of fetal biomagnetic signals
- Localization and quantification of adhesion molecule expression in the lower uterine segment during premature labor
- Is intrapartum vibroacoustic stimulation an effective predictor of fetal acidosis?
- Plasma adrenomedullin levels in pregnancies with appropriate for gestational age and small for gestational age infants
- Tissue concentrations of cytokines in the lower uterine segment during preterm parturition
- Effect of labor on maternal dehydration, starvation, coagulation, and fibrinolysis
- Changes in light-induced fluorescence of cervical collagen in guinea pigs during gestation and after sodium nitroprusside treatment
- Cardiotocography or Doppler in making delivery decision?
- Book review
- Congress Calendar
