Researchers took blood samples from 527 women – based at six hospitals across the UK – at weeks 28 and 36 of pregnancy between March 2012 and October 2014. Studies have found a focus on careers and financial concerns push women to have children later in life.īut the risks of stillbirth, giving birth prematurely and newborns being admitted to intensive care are up to two times higher in older mothers. Increasing numbers of women are waiting until later in life to have a child, with up to a quarter of babies in the UK now born to over-35s. The NHS can determine if a woman is at risk of giving birth early based on whether they have done so previously, if their cervix has been damaged during surgery or if their cervix is short.īut in some cases, pre-term labour is planned because it is safer for the baby to be born sooner, such as if the mother has a health condition. The risk of giving birth prematurely is highest for black Caribbean women (10 per cent) and lowest for white women (six per cent). One in 10 of preterm babies will have a permanent disability, such as lung disease, cerebral palsy, blindness or deafness.Īnd around half of those born before 26 weeks will have a disability. The earlier a baby is born, the higher the risk of it having health problems. Meanwhile, the majority were moderately premature, meaning the baby was born between 32 and 37 weeks.Īround 95 per cent of babies born after 31 weeks in the UK survive, but the survival rate drops the earlier that the baby is born. Of these births, five per cent were extremely preterm - meaning they happened sooner than 28 weeks.Īround one in 10 were very preterm, which means the mother gave birth between week 28 and 32 of pregnancy. This means around eight per cent of births in the UK are preterm, equaling around 60,000 babies a year. Around eight per 100 babies are born before 37 weeks of pregnancy.
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