News

3rd September 2004

British women unaware of the truth about premature birth

New research published today have found that British women know surprisingly little about premature births, with millions of women simply assuming it would not happen to them. This has led to 88 per cent of expectant mothers receiving no information on the subject during pregnancy.

The research, carried out by Action Medical Research as part of their Touching Tiny Lives campaign, discovered that one in five women in the UK wrongly assume that doctors can always diagnose a premature birth and a third of the women interviewed, incorrectly believed that premature labour can usually be stopped.

The survey also discovered that almost one in ten women believe premature birth only happens when people have done something wrong to trigger it, such as smoking during pregnancy or having had an accident. This can lead to mothers blaming themselves for something that is not their fault.

And almost one in ten women incorrectly assume that premature birth is mostly genetic and runs in the family.

Commenting on the research, Dr Dawn Harper said, "This lack of knowledge about the issues surrounding premature birth in the UK does give cause for concern.

"Being mentally prepared for the possibility of having a premature baby can aid both the health of the mother and the development of the baby if the child does arrive early.

"Most premature babies spend some time in a special care baby unit, meaning much of the caring is done by someone else and for a number of reasons, breastfeeding can be difficult. If parents are unprepared for this, it adds to their stress and can have an impact on bonding."

The Touching Tiny Lives campaign aims to raise awareness and help fund research into premature birth and other serious conditions which threaten babies and expectant mothers.

Tracy Swinfield, Director of Research for Action Medical Research added, "We want to raise £3 million through the Touching Tiny Lives campaign to help sick babies.

"Thanks to advances in medical research, as many as 80-85% of babies born weighing less than 1000gms (2.2lbs) now survive in the UK. There is great potential for more breakthroughs in the future. But not enough money goes into investigating the causes of premature birth and conditions affecting the most vulnerable babies."

In the UK a baby is born prematurely every 11 minutes, making up approximately 10% of all births in Britain. Everyday in the UK around 130 babies are born prematurely.

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