Pregnancy care

Pregnancy care and care for preterm labour and birth

Pregnancy 'at risk' of preterm birth
 

It is extremely difficult to tell which women will actually have their babies' preterm. We know there are possible risk factors, but we do not know the actual causes for preterm birth and there are many women who experience preterm birth without any recognisable risk factors.

If a woman has had a preterm baby in the past or is carrying twins or more, then her caregiver may be more aware of a possible preterm birth for a subsequent pregnancy. Besides being aware and making plans for possible transfer, what the caregiver can do to prevent a preterm birth (or what the woman can do for herself) is then quite limited. There are no guarantees that the pregnancy will continue to beyond 37 weeks.

Certainly lifestyle changes such as giving up (or cutting back) alcohol, and cigarettes (or any other drug use) are recommended. You may consider not physically overdoing it at work or at home and taking care with rigorous exercise regimes.

As far as medical interventions go, past approaches have so far failed to show much benefit. The following are some interventions and recommendations that have now shown NOT to be helpful in preventing or detecting preterm labour.

These include:

Bed rest

Home uterine monitoring

Cervical assessment

Contraction suppressant medications