Women whose water has broken (ruptured bag of membrane) early may want to wait at least 18 months before having their next child.
Women whose water has broken (ruptured bag of membrane) early may want to wait at least 18 months before having their next child.
Preterm, premature rupture of membranes is a complication during pregnancy, in which a woman's water breaks before her pregnancy has reached full term and before labor has begun and occurs in up to 5 percent of pregnancies. The complication leads to one in every four premature births and puts both mother and fetus at risk of infection.
While the reasons why some women's water breaks early are elusive, women who have had the complication previously are known to have a higher risk in subsequent pregnancies.
To investigate whether the length of time between pregnancies also influences this risk, the researchers reviewed data on 1,80,940 American women who had two or three children between 1989 and 1997. Around 3 percent of African-American women and 1 percent of native-American women's water broke early during their first or second pregnancies.
Among native-American women whose water broke early, 6 percent had the complication in their subsequent pregnancy, compared to 2 percent of women who hadn't suffered from this complication. The rates for African-American women were 10 percent and 4 percent, respectively. This translated to a nearly nine-fold higher risk of the same complication in subsequnt pregnancy in native-American women, and a seven-fold higher risk in African-American women.
The risk for water breaking early increased if a woman got pregnant again within 18 months. The risk of early water breaking for native-American women who got pregnant again this soon was tripled.
The above findings suggest that the complication may be related to inflammation, and that a longer interval between pregnancies may allow a full recovery.
Preterm, premature rupture of membranes is a complication during pregnancy, in which a woman's water breaks before her pregnancy has reached full term and before labor has begun and occurs in up to 5 percent of pregnancies. The complication leads to one in every four premature births and puts both mother and fetus at risk of infection.
While the reasons why some women's water breaks early are elusive, women who have had the complication previously are known to have a higher risk in subsequent pregnancies.
To investigate whether the length of time between pregnancies also influences this risk, the researchers reviewed data on 1,80,940 American women who had two or three children between 1989 and 1997. Around 3 percent of African-American women and 1 percent of native-American women's water broke early during their first or second pregnancies.
Among native-American women whose water broke early, 6 percent had the complication in their subsequent pregnancy, compared to 2 percent of women who hadn't suffered from this complication. The rates for African-American women were 10 percent and 4 percent, respectively. This translated to a nearly nine-fold higher risk of the same complication in subsequnt pregnancy in native-American women, and a seven-fold higher risk in African-American women.
The risk for water breaking early increased if a woman got pregnant again within 18 months. The risk of early water breaking for native-American women who got pregnant again this soon was tripled.
The above findings suggest that the complication may be related to inflammation, and that a longer interval between pregnancies may allow a full recovery.
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