Worldwide (developed world where stats are kept), it's 5-9%. In the U.
S., it's 12-13%.

About 40-45% of these follow premature labor; about 1/3 are when the water breaks early; but the rest are induced.

The first cause, premature labor, has a number of causes, including malnutrition--not too few calories, but nutrients that are not typically found in a diet of processed foods, or are found in foods not usually eaten in the average U.S. diet. It's also found more frequently where the pregnancy is a result of medical intervention; because while implantation and fertility drugs can result in pregnancy, preparing the mother's body to carry a baby to healthy term is not something those treatments are designed to do. And again, there is a nutrition link with some infertility.

For the 1/3 where the membranes spontaneously break early, this is simply the second side of the first issue. In some women with normal births, the membranes don't break until transition or after; sometimes they break before labor starts. So early membrane rupture followed by early labor is just a different side of the same issue, with similar factors that cause it.

The final one, where the physician induces labor early, is sometimes medically necessary: where the baby needs emergency surgery and they want to be able to plan it. In some cases, the gestational age was miscalculated, so that the baby is under 37 weeks. This can happen if it's a large baby or if the mother's cycles are not regular; and then decides to induce because of the family's schedule ("Let's fit in the birth before your sister's wedding." It's much better to let nature take its course.
Source(s):
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18177778

http://www.ftcldf.org/news/news-14nov2008-2.htm

http://www.westonaprice.org/basicnutrition/vitaminasaga.html

http://www.ppnf.org

The books Traditional Nutrition: The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats by Dr. Mary Enig and Sally Fallon; and Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, by Dr. Weston A. Price

Asker's Rating:

Permalink | Report