Question: Hi Roberta! Why are some babies born premature?

Roberta Migale answered on 18 May 2020:

Hi EllaM 🙂 Thanks for your question. We still have a lot to learn about premature birth and often it’s nearly impossible to understand what may cause it, this is why research in preterm birth is so fundamental to learn more about this syndrome and to try and avoid babies being born too soon. Preterm birth complications are the leading cause of death among children under 5 years of age and just to give you a sense of the scale of the problem every year, an estimated 15 million babies are born preterm (before 37 completed weeks of gestation)! It is known that we could prevent at least 3/4 of these death by using prevention and develop new treatments so there is definitely hope!
However, whilst most cases of preterm birth are unexplained, we do know that there are some risk factors for example infection, problems with the placenta, smoking/drinking/drug usage during pregnancy are also associated with higher chances of delivering preterm (and causing long-lasting problems to the baby), twins and triplets are often born prematurely, being over/underweight, having a family history of preterm birth, diabetes, high blood pressure, getting no prenatal care, stress, being younger than 17 or older than 35, short interval between pregnancies (women should wait 18 months at least before getting pregnant again).
You can read more about preterm birth at the NHS webpage https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/premature-early-labour/ and here https://www.marchofdimes.org/complications/preterm-labor-and-premature-birth-are-you-at-risk.aspx#

As you can see there are so many factors that may trigger an early birth, and often they overlap and we cannot tell for sure what is causing it. On a positive note, research has intensified in the last decades and the chances of survival and good health for babies born too soon has definitely increased!
One important point to make is that low-income countries are more affected and within these countries poorer families are at higher risk of preterm birth and complications to the baby’s health.

The WHO (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/preterm-birth) has been working very hard in the last decade to make cost-effective treatments available worldwide, to support research in preterm birth with the ultimate goal of decreasing the number of babies suffering from the consequence of being born too soon worldwide.
I hope this was useful, thanks for your very important question 🙂
Stay well, Roberta