Premature labour – how does it start?

This research was completed on 31 December 2005

Project Leader	Dr M R Johnson PhD, MRCP, MRCOG and Professor P R Bennett BSc, PhD, MD, FRCOG.
Location	Department of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Imperial College Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Developmental and Reproductive Biology, London.
Grant awarded	7 November 2002
Start date	1 January 2003
End date	31 December 2005
Grant amount	£135,316.00
Grant code	SP3879

Preterm labour occurs in 7 – 10% of deliveries and around 50,000 babies are born preterm every year. 1,500 of these babies will die because they were premature and many more will go on to have cerebral palsy, long term breathing problems, developmental delay and other disabilities. During pregnancy, the hormone progesterone stops the womb from contracting. This study is to find out how labour starts despite no fall in progesterone. The results should increase our understanding of preterm labour and help develop treatments to prevent it.