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When you?re pregnant, all you can think about is what?s best for your baby and what you can do to avoid any complications, such as going into early labour. While there is often nothing you can do to avoid a preterm birth, a new study from Cincinnati Children?s Hospital Medical Center has found that 25 percent of preterm births (before 37 weeks of gestation) can in fact be prevented. By eliminating three major and modifiable risk factors?too short of an interval between pregnancies, a too-high or too-low body mass index (BMI) before pregnancy, and the amount of weight gained during your pregnancy?a quarter of all preemie births can be avoided. And that?s a fair number of births: according to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately one in 12 babies in Canada is born prematurely. Published online in the Maternal and Child Health Journal, the study?s researchers looked at birth records in Ohio from 2006 to 2011 that included almost 400,000 live, non-multiple births. Lead researcher Emily DeFranco, a physician at the Center for Prevention of Preterm Birth at Cincinnati Children?s Hospital, and her colleagues found that preventable risk factors for preterm births were present in more than 90 percent of the women in the study.
For instance, the data showed that fewer than half of women begin pregnancy with a normal weight and only 32 percent reached the recommended pregnancy weight. What is the ideal weight gain" It depends on the woman?s BMI. As...