Late pre-term (32 – 36 weeks) birth in a North London hospital

Summary

Most of the complications of pre-term delivery arise in the 1 – 2% of births before 32 weeks' gestation. However, late pre-term birth (32 – 36 weeks' gestation) is still worrying for the mother and clinician. In a retrospective study that compared the management and outcome of 103 singleton pregnancies delivered between 32 and 36 weeks' of gestation with 103 age-matched controls that delivered at term, a short inter-pregnancy interval, early pregnancy bleeding, pre-labour spontaneous rupture of membranes, a history of pre-term delivery and Asian race or single marital status were found to be significant factors. The groups did not differ in parity, BMI, smoking status or history of miscarriages and terminations. Following a logistic regression analysis, the following emerged as risk factors for late pre-term delivery; a history of previous pre-term delivery (OR = 7.2; 95% CI 1.6 – 33.2), a short (<12 months) inter-pregnancy interval (OR = 4.1; 95% CI 2.2 – 7.5), early pregnancy bleeding (OR = 7.6; 95% CI 1.3 – 38.3) and pre-labour spontaneous rupture of membranes (OR = 13.3, 95% CI 3.1 – 55.2).