Pregnancy Journals Recalls Safety Shopping Sleep Site Map Shop. Preterm labor begins prior to 37 completed weeks of gestation, i.e. less than 37 weeks from the first day of the last normal menstrual period. Unfortunately, waiting for uterine contractions to result in cervical changes wastes valuable treatment time. Therefore, doctors sometimes make the diagnosis of premature labor when cervical changes are minor or just beginning.
Early treatment is more effective than later treatment after labor has advanced.
Preterm delivery causes more death and illness in the newborn period than anything else except birth defects. 1 Spontaneous preterm labor causes a large percentage of these preterm deliveries. The risk of preterm delivery varies considerably. Some women have several times the risk of others. Some risk factors can be controlled such as alcohol and illicit drug use.