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Women Experiencing Gestational Diabetes Are At Higher Risk For Spontaneous Preterm Birth

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sugar(American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Committee on Practice Bulletins--Obstetrics, 2001). Studies though, have found that women experiencing gestational diabetes are at higher risk for spontaneous preterm birth. A Northern California study of over 46,000 women screened for gestational diabetes, those who screened positive for gestational diabetes had a significantly higher risk of spontaneous preterm birth (OR:1.53, 95%CI, 1.16-2.03) (Hedderson, Ferrara, & Sacks, 2003).

-Infections: Several forms of infection and inflammation, both maternal and intrauterine, are linked to preterm birth. These include infections brought about by genital tract bacteria, sexually transmitted diseases and/or periodontal disease (Kawar & …show more content…

A recent cross-sectional study in Japan found that women who gain less than 9 kg (~19 lbs) during pregnancy are much more likely to have a growth restricted infant (OR: 1.8, CI 95%, 1.6-2.2) compared to those who gain 9-12 kg (~19-26 lbs) (Watanabe et al., 2010). The same study also found that low pre-pregnancy BMI (≤18.5) is also significantly associated with SGA in newborn infants (OR:1.6, CI 95%, 1.3-2.2).

-Elevated BMI or experiencing excessive pregnancy weight gain: Having a higher prepregnancy BMI or excessive weight gain during pregnancy increases a woman’s likelihood of spontaneous preterm birth or of necessitating a medically-induced preterm delivery which are more likely to contribute to low infant birth weight. A 12 year retrospective analysis of pregnant women noted that those who had a prepregnancy BMI of ≥30.0 kg/m2 were at higher risk of suffering from weight-related conditions such as hypertension and diabetes which can lead to a medically-induced preterm delivery (Aly et al., 2010a). Women with BMI levels ≤30 kg/m2 had a 14.5% risk of preterm delivery compared to the women who were obese (≥30.0 kg/m2) who had a 16.7% risk of preterm delivery and the morbidly obese (≥40.0 kg/m2) who had a 20.3% risk (Aly et al., 2010b). A Swedish population based cohort study also noted that obese women are at much higher risk of extremely preterm delivery compared to normal BMI women, with the risk increasing as the level of obesity increased; BMI 30-35

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