The Premature births are a real health problem today. The percentage of premature births has been growing in recent decades (36% in 20 years, nothing less) and researchers do not stop working to try to find the causes in order to prevent them, since premature births put at risk the life of babies and involve a high cost to health.
There are many advances that we have been telling you in Babies and more in this respect, and the last one is an incredible discovery: analyze the bacteria in the vagina of pregnant women could serve to know if a woman is at risk of having her birth or not premature.
Discovery Data
The bacteria in our body, which we also know as a microbiome, seem to be sending us messages continuously, since depending on the type of bacteria we have and the number of them we are more at risk of suffering some ailments or of being relatively healthy.
There are many researchers who are working in this direction to try to understand how one thing is a consequence of the other, or what is the same: what bacteria cause what.
With the intention of understanding what impact the bacteria of the body of women have on pregnancy, a group of researchers from the University of Standford, in the US, decided to study 49 pregnant women collecting samples, every week, of teeth and teeth. gums, saliva, the vagina and feces
In total, they collected 3,767 samples that were then analyzed to find out if they found any indication of anything, if any of those samples could help them predict premature deliveries.
When analyzing all the samples they saw that none gave relevant data except those of the vaginal area. Neither those of the gums, teeth, saliva nor feces varied among women, but those of the vagina did. In nine women they found a different microbiota than the rest (they had high levels of Lactobacillus CST IV, together with a high concentration of Gardnerella or Ureaplasma), and Of these nine, four had a premature delivery. So they concluded that women with that particular microbiome had increased risk of preterm birth (that you have more risk does not mean that you are going to have yes or yes a delivery ahead of time).
They also discovered something important after delivery
The researchers continued to collect samples after childbirth and thus discovered that most women, regardless of the type of birth they had had, suffered variations in the vaginal microbiome. Apparently, just after giving birth, a decrease in Lactobacillus species and an increase in various anaerobes such as Peptoniphilus, Prevotella, and Anaerococcus species began. These changes made the bacteria of the women were very different from the ones they had before pregnancy.
It wasn't until more or less one year after delivery when the levels varied until reaching that precondition, which could be said to be the ideal composition to achieve a new pregnancy.
Given this discovery, David Relman, principal investigator, said the following, according to ABC:
This could explain why women with poorly spaced pregnancies have an increased risk of preterm birth.
That is, not only have they discovered a possible way of knowing the risk of premature delivery, but it seems that they have also found the reason why after a delivery it is better to wait at least 12 months and as an ideal time at least 18 months .
Now we just need to continue studying these findings with new research that can confirm the data to be able to put the analysis into practice. It is currently customary to collect samples from the woman's vagina to know if there is colonization by type B streptococcus, because perhaps, in the same test, (or at the beginning of pregnancy) it can be determined what bacteria there are and thus know the risk of premature delivery. And from this, look for possible solutions to advance the problem and overcome it before it occurs (perhaps with the taking of certain probiotics?).
Photos | iStock
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