We searched Medline, PubMed, and the Cochrane Library for published work relevant to this Review with the search terms “preterm delivery”, “preterm labour”, and “preterm birth”, alone, and in combination with the terms “epidemiology”, “reproduction”, “multiple pregnancy”, “twins”, and “perinatal”. We also did separate searches with the terms “tocolysis” and “myometrium”. We focused on work published in the past 5 years, but also included commonly referenced and highly regarded older
ReviewPreterm delivery
Section snippets
Mortality and morbidity
About 75% of perinatal deaths occur in infants born prematurely,8, 9, 10 with over two thirds of these arising in the 30–40% of preterm infants who are delivered before 32 weeks' gestation. In recent decades, primarily through advances in neonatal medicine, there has been an increase in survival rates for preterm and low-birthweight infants, especially for those born extremely early on in gestation (figure 1),9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and a survival rate of almost
Epidemiology
A child born before 37 weeks of gestation is judged preterm.30, 31 Although there is no set lower limit for this definition, 23–24 weeks' gestation is widely accepted, corresponding to an average fetal weight of 500 g. The prevalence of preterm delivery varies from 6% to 15% of all deliveries,2, 8, 32, 33 depending on the geographical and demographic features of the population studied. Although ascertainment of exact statistics at the borders of viability is difficult, with potential for slight
Search strategy
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A study of antenatal cocaine use: chaos in action
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Pneumonia during pregnancy: has modern technology improved maternal and fetal outcome?
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Choriodecidual inflammatory syndrome (CoDIS) is the leading, and under recognized, cause of early preterm delivery and second trimester miscarriage
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Am J Obstet Gynecol
Intra-amniotic detection of Chlamydia tracliomatis deoxyribonucleic acid sequences by polymerase chain reaction
Am J Obstet Gynecol
Biochemistry of myometrial contractility
Baillieres Clin Obstet Gynaecol
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J Perinat Med
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Prevention of premature birth
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Clinical, scientific and ethical aspects of fetal and neonatal care at extreme preterm periods of gestation
Br J Obstet Gynaecol
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Improving survival of the very premature infant
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BJOG
Perinatal management at the lower margin of viability
Arch Dis Child
The impact of extremely immature infants on neonatal services
Arch Dis Child
The Swedish national prospective study on extremely low birthweight (ELBW) infants: incidence, mortality, morbidity and survival in relation to level of care
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Neurological and developmental disability after extremely preterm birth
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Audit of very low birth weight survival in Galway
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Mortality of twins and singletons by gestational age: a varying-coefficient approach
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Epidemiology of cerebral palsy in England and Scotland, 1984–9
Arch Dis Child
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