What causes a woman to go into labor? If you answered, “I don’t know,” then you know just as much as the rest of us. We know the signs of impending labor and we know how to (sometimes) synthetically get it started, but the mystery behind why exactly labor starts has baffled doctors and researchers. Now they are getting one step closer in discovering the secret and using it to prevent premature births.
Thirteen million babies are born premature each year. One million of those preemies do not survive. For those that do, many will suffer respiratory distress syndrome, apnea, bleeding in the brain, heart problems, intestinal problems, eye problems, jaundice, anemia, chronic lung disease, and infections. Finding out what causes women to give birth prematurely and finding ways to prevent premature birth are extremely important, especially with premature birth rates on the rise.
One theory ties labor to a woman’s immune system. When a woman is pregnant, her immune system has to change so that her body will not reject the baby. Researchers believe that the immune system might shift again when the baby is term, essentially “rejecting” the baby and starting labor. Therefore, they believe that premature labor may be caused by this same immune response, possibly triggered by an infection, even if it is not detected. To test this theory, scientists are studying pregnancies in mice. Mice have similar pregnancies to humans, but with a 20 day gestation. In response to being injected with substances that mimic a viral or bacterial infection, the mice’s bodies produced a substance that induces inflammation. The mice gave birth prematurely as a result. But, if the scientists injected the mice with a substance that neutralized the inflammatory substance, the mice carried to term. They hope to achieve the same result with human pregnancies, possibly developing a treatment that will stop premature labor in its tracks and allow women to carry to full term. Of course, some women give birth prematurely for other reasons, such as an incompetent cervix, so this type of treatment would not prevent all premature births.
With ten percent of all babies being born prematurely, I really hope they discover a treatment that works, and soon!