Prevention of Preterm Birth

Abstract

Summary Preterm birth (PTB) is a worldwide problem with great social significance because it is a leading cause of perinatal complications and perinatal mortality. PTB is responsible for more than a half of neonatal deaths. The rate of preterm delivery varies between 5-18% worldwide and has not decreased in recent years, regardless of the development of medical science. One of the leading causes for that is the failure to identify the high-risk group in prenatal care. PTB is a heterogeneous syndrome in which many different factors interfere at different levels of the pathogenesis of the initiation of delivery, finally resulting in delivery before 37 weeks of gestation (wg). The various specificities of risk factors and the unclear mechanism of initiation of labour make it difficult to elaborate standard, unified and effective screening to diagnose pregnant women at high-risk for PTB correctly. Furthermore, they make primary and secondary prophylaxis less effective and render diagnostic and therapeutic measures ineffective and inappropriate. Reliable and accessible screening methods are necessary for antenatal care, and risk factors for PTB should be studied and clarified in search of useful tools to solve issues of risk pregnancies to decrease PTB rates and associated complications.