Similarly, not having any of the risk factors doesn't mean that you won't some women do for other reasons — or for no known reason at all. While medical advances have made it possible to successfully treat even the tiniest of premature babies, medical interventions to prevent preterm labor have been elusive, in large part because doctors still don't understand it enough to be able to develop effective ways to treat it. But that doesn't mean there's nothing you as a concerned mom-to-be can do.
Even if you're not at risk for preterm labor and especially if you are , there are plenty of ways to help keep your baby put until he or she is completely ready for a healthy and timely arrival:. Unfortunately, there are no universal screening tests for preterm labor risk. But for high-risk patients, cervical length measurement between 16 to 22 weeks may be useful in predicting whether you're at risk for preterm birth.
If there are any signs that your cervix is shortening or opening, your practitioner may take some steps to prevent early labor — such as putting you on bed rest , prescribing vaginal progesterone or perhaps stitching your cervix closed, called cerclage.
A full 80 percent of women who have symptoms of preterm labor will not deliver early. And while it's likely you'll never have to put this knowledge to use, it's good to have in your back pocket: The earlier you recognize that you're in labor, the earlier you'll be able to seek treatment. Call your practitioner right away if you are experiencing these labor signs :. But only your practitioner can tell for sure, so pick up the phone and call. After all, better safe than sorry. If you're experiencing any symptoms of preterm labor, your practitioner will want to assess you — either in the office or the hospital.
Tests for preterm labor: You'll first be hooked up to a fetal monitor to check for contractions and to make sure the baby is not in any distress.
For pregnant women at high risk of preterm birth for any reason including multiple pregnancy, home uterine monitoring was of unknown benefit or harm. For high-risk pregnant women with multiple pregnancy: bedrest, prophylactic oral betamimetics, vaginal progesterone and cervical cerclage were all of unknown benefit or harm.
There is valuable information in the Cochrane Library relevant to women, doctors, midwives and researchers interested in preventing early birth. We have summarised the results of systematic reviews to describe how well different strategies work to prevent early birth and baby death.
We organised our information in clear figures with graphic icons to represent how confident we were in the results and to point readers toward promising treatments for specific groups of pregnant women. Our overview found no up-to-date information in the Cochrane Library for the important treatments of cervical pessary, vaginal progesterone or cervical assessment with ultrasound. We found no high-quality evidence relevant to women at high risk of preterm birth due to multiple pregnancy.
It remains important for pregnant women and their healthcare providers to carefully consider whether specific strategies to prevent preterm birth will be of benefit for individual women, or for specific populations of women. The overview serves as a map and guide to all current evidence relevant to PTB prevention published in the Cochrane Library. Of 70 SRs with outcome data, we identified 36 reviews of interventions with the aim of preventing PTB.
Just four of these SRs had evidence of clear benefit to women, with an additional four SRs reporting possible benefit. No SR reported clear harm, which is an important finding for women and health providers alike.
The overview summarises no evidence for the clinically important interventions of cervical pessary, cervical length assessment and vaginal progesterone because these Cochrane Reviews were not current.
These are active areas for PTB research. The graphic icons we assigned to SR effect estimates do not constitute clinical guidance or an endorsement of specific interventions for pregnant women. It remains critical for pregnant women and their healthcare providers to carefully consider whether specific strategies to prevent PTB will be of benefit for individual women, or for specific populations of women.
Formal consensus work is needed to establish standard language for overviews of reviews and to define the limits of their interpretation. Clinicians, researchers and funders must address the lack of evidence for interventions relevant to women at high risk of PTB due to multiple pregnancy.
Preterm birth PTB is a major factor contributing to global rates of neonatal death and to longer-term health problems for surviving infants.
Both the World Health Organization and the United Nations consider prevention of PTB as central to improving health care for pregnant women and newborn babies. Current preventative clinical strategies show varied efficacy in different populations of pregnant women, frustrating women and health providers alike, while researchers call for better understanding of the underlying mechanisms that lead to PTB.
Your baby needs about 40 weeks in the womb to grow and develop before birth. Babies born before 37 weeks of pregnancy are called premature. Premature babies can have serious health problems at birth and later in life. About 1 in 10 babies is born prematurely each year in the United States. Learn the signs and symptoms of preterm labor so you can get help quickly if they happen to you.
If you have even one of these signs and symptoms of preterm labor, call your provider right away:. When you see your provider, he may do a pelvic exam or a transvaginal ultrasound to see if your cervix has started to thin out and open for labor.
Your cervix is the opening to the uterus womb that sits at the top of the vagina birth canal. A transvaginal ultrasound is done in the vagina instead of on the outside of your belly.
Like a regular ultrasound, it uses sound waves and a computer to make a picture of your baby. You may get other tests to help your provider find out if you really are in labor. Talk to your provider about which treatments may be right for you. Sometimes labor starts on its own without warning. Even if you do everything right during pregnancy, you can still give birth early.
We do know some things may make you more likely than others to have preterm labor and premature birth. In these cases, the doctor may recommend treatments such as: Progesterone: This hormone can be given as a shot or put into the vagina. It can help lower the chances of going into labor early for women who have had a premature baby before or who have a short cervix.
Cerclage: In this procedure, stitches close a woman's cervix to help prevent preterm birth. Doctors may recommend cerclage for women who have had premature babies or miscarriages, who have a short cervix, or who have a cervix that begins to open dilate too early. What if Labor Starts Early?
Care for a woman in preterm labor can include: Antibiotics: These can treat or prevent infections in the baby and the mother. Steroids: These drugs can help speed up a baby's lung growth and decrease the chances of breathing problems if the baby is born too soon. Medicine to slow or stop labor contractions temporarily: Delaying labor even a day or two can be enough time for steroids to help a baby's lungs develop.
It also gives hospital staff time to get the mother to a hospital with a NICU, if needed. What Can I Do?
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