Near Term Labor on the Rise

The Washington Post has released a study of “near term labor” increases in the U.S.  Near term labor is labor that occurs from 34 to 36 weeks of pregnancy.  These babies, while not really preemies, are still prone to more complications than babies of full term pregnancies (37 to 40 weeks).  The post speculates that the increases are a result of a couple of factors.

• Mothers are waiting until later in life to have children, increasing risk of complications.
• Increasing use of fertility treatments causing a greater chance of twins and triplets.
• More obesity in mothers increases risk factors like hypertension, pre-eclampsia, and diabetes.

I talked about pregnancy and newborn resuscitation over the past two MedicCasts (Episode 15 and Episode 16).  What this recent study of the increase in the number of near term deliveries means is that we in the EMS field are more likely to run into a pregnancy with complications in the field and deliveries of infants with respiratory issues and other complications.

Jamie,

The Podmedic