Different methods have been proposed to screen for preterm labor and delivery; most of these aim to pre-dict the risk that preterm delivery is going to take place. However, interesting though this knowledge might be, ...Different methods have been proposed to screen for preterm labor and delivery; most of these aim to pre-dict the risk that preterm delivery is going to take place. However, interesting though this knowledge might be, knowing the future is of no use when no changes can be made. Recent publications have suggested new and exciting modalities to actually diminish the frequency of preterm birth in patients selected by transvaginal cervical length measurement; these modalities include vaginal progesterone and vaginal pessaries. Although promising, many questions remain to be answered; not least about the long term outcome for both neonates and mothers, but also on the eventual introduction of such strategies to the general obstetric population. One of the main problems that urgently needs clarifcation is how we are going to offer this best of medicine to those needing it most： deprived and socially isolated women who have the highest risk for preterm laborand delivery, probably not due to any congenital cervi-cal problems, but to a combination of environmental, microbiological and social factors, including transgen-erational poverty and deprivation.展开更多
文摘Different methods have been proposed to screen for preterm labor and delivery; most of these aim to pre-dict the risk that preterm delivery is going to take place. However, interesting though this knowledge might be, knowing the future is of no use when no changes can be made. Recent publications have suggested new and exciting modalities to actually diminish the frequency of preterm birth in patients selected by transvaginal cervical length measurement; these modalities include vaginal progesterone and vaginal pessaries. Although promising, many questions remain to be answered; not least about the long term outcome for both neonates and mothers, but also on the eventual introduction of such strategies to the general obstetric population. One of the main problems that urgently needs clarifcation is how we are going to offer this best of medicine to those needing it most： deprived and socially isolated women who have the highest risk for preterm laborand delivery, probably not due to any congenital cervi-cal problems, but to a combination of environmental, microbiological and social factors, including transgen-erational poverty and deprivation.
