Pregnancy from the Inside Out -- Part 2

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Preterm birth is defined as birth before 37 weeks of completed gestation. 

Preterm birth is the leading cause of newborn death, and the second leading cause of infant death. (1)

Babies surviving premature birth classically face a lifetime of health challenges, including breathing problems, cerebral palsy, motor and intellectual disabilities and others. (2)

Prevention of preterm births of 58,000 babies per year is thought possible just by lowering preterm birth rates of 39 countries across the world by 2015.(3)

Five proven interventions to prevent premature birth are sited.

These five interventions include:

• "eliminating early cesarean deliveries and inductions of labor unless medically necessary
• decreasing multiple embryo transfers during assisted reproductive technologies;
•  helping women quit smoking;
•  providing progesterone supplementation to women with high risk pregnancies;
• cervical cerclage for high-risk women with short cervix." (4)

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1, 3, 4. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121115210617.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fhealth_medicine%2Fpregnancy_and_childbirth+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Health+%26+Medicine+News+--+Pregnancy+and+Childbirth%29
Journal Reference:
Hannah H Chang, Jim Larson, Hannah Blencowe, Catherine Y Spong, Christopher P Howson, Sarah Cairns-Smith, Eve M Lackritz, Shoo K Lee, Elizabeth Mason, Andrew C Serazin, Salimah Walani, Joe Leigh Simpson, Joy E Lawn. Preventing preterm births: analysis of trends and potential reductions with interventions in 39 countries with very high human development index. The Lancet, 2012; DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(12)61856-X

2.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120502184853.htm

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Five alternative cost effective interventions to prevent premature birth and eliminate ethnic health disparities in outcome of pregnancy and maternal and newborn health:

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The newborn pictured is an exception, and not by accident. He was born to a teenage mother, age 18, and high risk by all standards. Yet he was born weighing over 9 pounds and healthy. Today he is 8 years old and academically gifted.
He is an exception because across the United States of America, the general rate of preterm birth has decreased for Caucasian Americans, yet in the state of California, the rate of preterm births has increased for African Americans. 
African American babies are born too early and too sickly to live on their own without assistance of technology provided by neonatal intensive care units (nicu).  

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Eat to meet the nutritional demands of pregnancy from the inside out

Nutrition supplements for all  pregnant mothers

Allow pregnancy to advance spontaneously to full term 

Provide comprehensive perinatal education based in nutrition for all pregnant mothers.

Avoid tobacco, alcohol, and street drugs.