Study focuses on predicting preterm births


This is a retrospective study of prospective data,” said Dr Kjersti Aagaard, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Baylor and Texas Children’s Hospital. “We developed a biobank and data repository called PeriBank where we consistently asked our pregnant patients a set of questions about their familial history. We were able to take that detailed data and determine if that specific woman’s family history did or did not predict her delivering preterm.”

Once familial information was gathered, the research team was able to answer questions to quantify estimates of risk for preterm birth based on the pregnant patient’s family history of preterm birth in herself, her sister(s), her mother, grandmothers and aunts and great-aunts.

Their findings showed scenarios for women who have previously given birth (multiparous), as well as women who have never given birth (nulliparous). If a nulliparous woman herself was born preterm, her relative risk for delivering preterm was 1.75-fold higher. If her sister delivered preterm, her relative risk was 2.25-fold higher. If her grandmother or aunt delivered preterm, there was no significant increase of risk. If a multiparous mother with no prior preterm births was born preterm herself, her risk was 1.84-fold higher. However, if her sister, grandmother or aunt delivered preterm, there was no significant increase.

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