United States: The premature birth rate including the preterm and early-term of babies has increased from 2014 to 2022 according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
As per the data, a preterm birth rate which is the rate of delivery taking place before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy rose to 12% and early-term birth rates rose 20%, which is the rate of delivery at 37 to 38 completed weeks during that time period.
When compared with white mothers, black mothers were more likely to give premature birth, which is 7.6% and 12.5% respectively.
Moreover, women aged more than 40 are found to be at greater risk of preterm birth, compared with women aged 20-29, having rates of 12.5% and 8.23% respectively.
Effect of abortion ban law
As per the Commonwealth Fund, the United States has one of the worst maternal mortality rates among developed democracies.
Due to abortion bans, especially in the US South, and Western states, maternal and infant health problems have been accentuated.
Cynthia Gyamfi-Bannerman, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist and president-elect of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine said, “What’s important here is, with all of the research we’ve done to try to decrease preterm birth, we still have not found the solution,” and “It’s because we actually don’t know what instigates preterm birth in many cases,” the Guardian reported.
The report also mentioned the post-Dobb era, the striking down of the Roe vs Wade judgment, which had guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion by the Supreme Court in July 2022.
Several states in the US, especially in the South, outlawed abortions. The survey on the effect of abortion restrictions and bans from the reports from obstetricians and gynecologists, by June 2023, has shown negative effects.
National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) report
It gave significance to represent data presenting the shockingly high rate of preterm births in the US. It also presented the possible risks related to starting families late in life, since there has been a change towards women giving birth in their early 40s in the last decade.
Additionally, it also highlighted the stark racial difference between Black women and their white and Hispanic counterparts.
According to the researchers, the reasons for such disparities are “weathering”, or premature aging which leads to the stress of racism and deprivation, reported by The Guardian.
Researchers at NCHS observed birth records from 2014, where the analysis was restricted to births involving one baby as multiples tend to be born earlier.
Along with some fluctuations during the COVID-19 pandemic, the preterm birth rates increased by around 2 percent every year, which shows that the social and economic stressors considered as drivers for preterm births could be worsening.
As per the Guardian reports, Gyamfi-Bannerman said, “We know there’s a link between stress and preterm birth, and that’s something that’s been studied in the literature but very challenging to mitigate,” and “We see it time and time again.”
Other reports to represent premature birth data
NCHS reported that showed rate used a different calculation than another famous preterm birth statistic, March of Dimes- which showed a 0.4% preterm birth rate.
As per the November, NCHS data, the infant advocacy organization offered a grade of D+ to the US for its high rate of preterm births.
The date is derived from birth certificates in both cases, however, the result reported in the March of Dimes report did not contain data from live births, whereas the new report stats took all births into account.