Premature baby stats!

Around 60,000 babies are born prematurely each year in the UK and many suffer lifelong consequences as a result. This is one of the highest rates in Europe and it's still rising, yet there is currently no accurate screening test available to identify women at risk. Tommy's believes creating a test must be an absolute priority and much of our current research is devoted to this. Our London and Manchester centres are searching for biological markers identifying women likely to have preterm babies. Both centres are participating in the international SCOPE study, which is investigating ways to predict various pregnancy probjems, including preterm birth. We have previously found that fetal fibronectin is a reliable indicator of preterm birth and we are now investigating the cost-effectiveness of a screening test based on this. We have also discovered that lower than expected levels of progesterone in saliva are a predictor of spontaneous preterm labour.
Our research into preterm birth is also focusing on strategies to prevent or delay early labour. At our centre in Edinburgh, Tommy’s Professor Jane Norman is leading a major clinical trial (the OPPTIMUM trial) to see whether progesterone is effective in preventing preterm birth. We're also looking closely at ways to prevent the contractions that begin the labour process. There have been some exciting results in this area, as you'll see below.



The World Health Organisation (Preterm birth, Fact sheet N 363, November 2012) has given the following definitions for the different stages of preterm birth.

• extremely preterm: less than 28 weeks
• very preterm: 28 to 32 weeks
• moderate to late preterm 32 to 37 weeks.

In England and Wales 

• Nearly 7.1 percent (1 in 14) of live births are born preterm [1].
• 89 percent of singleton babies born extremely preterm are of very low birthweight, whereas fewer than 1 percent of those born at term are.
• 95 percent of preterm births occur after 28 weeks of gestation, but 5 percent occur between 24 and 27 weeks, and just 0.1% occur before 24 weeks.
• In 2011, 5.6 percent of singleton births were preterm whereas 53.1 percent of multiple births were preterm [2].

In Scotland

• 7.1% of all Scottish births were premature in 2012.
• 5.6% of these were singleton births, whereas 57.7% of multiple births were preterm [3].

Globally! 

• 15 million babies are born preterm every year globally, Where reliable data is collected, preterm birth is rising in almost all countries. While over 60% of preterm births occur in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, developed countries such as the USA also have high preterm rates [4]. Across 184 countries, the rate of preterm birth ranges from 5% to 18% of babies born.

References- 
http://www.tommys.org/page.aspx?pid=362
http://www.tommys.org/page.aspx?pid=387