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A new study has found that the average pregnancy length in the United States (US) is shorter than in European countries. The research, led by Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) and Harvard Medical School, is published in PLOS One.
Hospital organizational structures and staffing differ across various regions of the world, which may impact pregnancy and birthing processes, in addition to pregnancy outcomes. A collaborative research study has analyzed gestational age patterns and timings of both home and hospital births to understand these differences in greater detail.
The researchers, including Professor Rachel Rowe from Oxford Population Health’s National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU), focused their study on three countries: the US – where most women are cared for by obstetricians – and England and the Netherlands, where pregnancy care is primarily provided by midwives, with further support offered by obstetrics if required.
“For overall gestational age comparisons, we drew on national birth cohorts from the US (1990, 2014 and 2020), the Netherlands (2014 and 2020) and England (2020). Birth timing data was drawn from national data from the US (2014 and 2020), the Netherlands (2014) and from a large representative sample from England (2008–10). We compared timing of births by hour of the day in hospital and home births in all three countries,” the authors write. In total, data on over 3.8 million births in the US, 156,000 births in the Netherlands and over 56,000 births in England were assessed.
www.technologynetworks.com
Hospital organizational structures and staffing differ across various regions of the world, which may impact pregnancy and birthing processes, in addition to pregnancy outcomes. A collaborative research study has analyzed gestational age patterns and timings of both home and hospital births to understand these differences in greater detail.
The researchers, including Professor Rachel Rowe from Oxford Population Health’s National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU), focused their study on three countries: the US – where most women are cared for by obstetricians – and England and the Netherlands, where pregnancy care is primarily provided by midwives, with further support offered by obstetrics if required.
“For overall gestational age comparisons, we drew on national birth cohorts from the US (1990, 2014 and 2020), the Netherlands (2014 and 2020) and England (2020). Birth timing data was drawn from national data from the US (2014 and 2020), the Netherlands (2014) and from a large representative sample from England (2008–10). We compared timing of births by hour of the day in hospital and home births in all three countries,” the authors write. In total, data on over 3.8 million births in the US, 156,000 births in the Netherlands and over 56,000 births in England were assessed.
Average Pregnancy Length Shorter in the US Than European Countries
A new study has found that the average pregnancy length in the United States (US) is shorter than in European countries. The research, led by Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) and Harvard Medical School, is published in <i>PLOS One</i>.
www.technologynetworks.com
