How to prevent premature births – Expert

A consultant paediatrician, Dr Dorka Bekee, has said that premature births can be prevented in Nigeria if pregnant women register for antenatal early and also visit hospital regularly till they give birth.  Speaking during an interview with Daily Trust, she said doing so would help detect avoidable causes of prematurity in births.  Dr Bekee, who […]

A consultant paediatrician, Dr Dorka Bekee, has said that premature births can be prevented in Nigeria if pregnant women register for antenatal early and also visit hospital regularly till they give birth.

 Speaking during an interview with Daily Trust, she said doing so would help detect avoidable causes of prematurity in births.

 Dr Bekee, who is a pediatrician at Mother and Child Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos, explained that some of the factors that usually led to premature births could be prevented by avoiding stress and regular attendance at the antenatal clinic for monitoring and observation.

According to her, aside skipping antenatal, one of the major risk factors were the undue stress most mothers subjected themselves to  which might lead to high blood pressure, premature rupture of the membranes and early labour, among others. 

She said pregnant women needed not go through stress until their due date in order to ease labour. She said any stress-related activity engaged by the woman earlier than that could make the membranes to rupture. 

She said also that when the water that protects the baby in the womb burst early and leaked out, there was the tendency of the baby getting infected, hence the occurrence of premature birth. 

She said anti-partum haemorrhage – when the placenta is not at the appropriate place – which could lead to the mother bleeding, could also lead to premature birth. 

The doctor warned pregnant women to avoid smoking and alcohol as they could cause preterm birth as well as make them have small babies.