A bacteria in mouth might be responsible for early labour.
Improving your oral hygiene can reduce the risk of early preterm labours. Researchers from Case Western Reserve and Yale Universities found that previously undiscovered bacteria usually found in the mouth could be responsible for up to 80 percent of early preterm labors.
This can help phyicians prevent preterm births by encouraging oral hygiene or prescribing targeted antibiotics.
Average pregnancy lasts about 40 weeks. A birth before 37 weeks is considered preterm. Preterm babies born preterm can suffer from many complications like vision and hearing loss, cerebral palsy, mental retardation. Preterm birth is also an important cause of death in newborn babies.
Anything from socioeconomic status and race to bacterial infection and genetics have been linked to preterm births, but a definitive cause is still elusive.
Han and her colleagues by infecting the rodents with Bergeyella, a previously unknown bacteria found in the mice, caused pretern births.
A strong correlation between infection and preterm births is known.The bacteria can travel and eventually colonize the uterus. That triggers an immune response, which can inflame the uterus and eventually cause a mother to go into labor prematurely.
Using polymerase chain reaction, the scientists identified the Bergeyella bacterium, as one of the culprit bacteria
Next step is to test the antibiotics that specifically target these new bacteria are currently being tested.
