OU Physicians Preventing Premature Births

On this day alone, an estimated 1300 babies will be born prematurely. There will be 480,000 premature births this year. Many of these infants will face weeks and even months in the neonatal intensive care unit. Some will have lifelong, even life-threatening health problems.

Pre-term labor and delivery can happen to any pregnant woman, but it happens more often to some women than to others.

“We know the pre-term birth rate is increasing,” said Eric Knudtson, MD of the OU Physicians Prenatal Diagnostic Center. “In fact, it increased 27 percent between 1981 and 2000. The difficulty we face is that despite much research, we still can not predict exactly which women will be at risk for pre-term labor and birth. We do know there are some factors that increase your risk.”

According to Knudtson, those factors include a pregnancy with twins, triplets or more, a history of uterine or cervical abnormalities and being younger than 17 or older than 35 years of age.

“Certain medical conditions during pregnancy may also increase a woman’s risk,” he noted. “Some of those include diabetes during pregnancy or a pre-existing medical condition like chronic hypertension, kidney disease or an auto-immune disease such as lupus.”

All of these factors can put a woman’s health or the health of her baby at risk. That’s why general obstetrician/gynecologists will often refer a woman to a maternal-fetal specialist like Knudtson. Maternal-fetal specialists have additional specialized training in the management of high-risk pregnancies, ultrasound, genetics and prenatal diagnosis. They are also trained in highly specialized procedures such as amniocentesis or fetal therapy like intrauterine transfusions for fetal anemia.

Knudtson said studies have shown certain lifestyle factors may put a woman at greater risk of per-term labor. 

“To protect yourself and your baby,” he added, “it is critical to get prenatal care as soon as you think you may be pregnant and to go to every appointment. If you smoke, stop. Don’t drink or take any drugs, herbal remedies or supplements that are not prescribed by you doctor. It’s also important to take steps to reduce stress. Rest and relax whenever you can.”