Hospitals see significant drop in premature births during lockdown

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/19/health/coronavirus-premature-birth.html

by Spoppys • 6 years ago

66 29 6 years ago

Zealotux• 6 years ago

Uneducated guess: I've read a few studies linking air pollution to pregnancy disorders. Maybe the effects are even stronger than previously thought.

DoingIsLearning2• 6 years ago

I think the article already provides a more likely educated guess:

"By staying home, some pregnant women may have experienced less stress from work and commuting, gotten more sleep and received more support from their families, the researchers said."

I am not saying air pollution should be dismissed as a factor, but the elephant in the room is that the stress levels experienced in a _lot_ of workplaces are not compatible with pregnancy.

It is also unfair to expect someone to just be 'equally performing' in the workplace during pregnancy.

From an evolutionary standpoint high stress levels are created by threats, if there are threats you are better off (from an evolutionary standpoint) suffering a miscarriage or early pregnancy since you would more likely be alive to try another pregnancy later when the external conditions present no threats.

appleflaxen• 6 years ago

My experience has been that people have a net greater degree of stress right now vs. pre-pandemic.

People are changing interpersonal work stress for interpersonal family stress which is itself magnified by the circumstances, plus the stress of a pandemic.

I have no idea what the cause could be, but to argue that "premie births are down because stress is down" can't possibly by tested right now, when stress is at an all-time high.

bananaface4• 6 years ago

Being in a global pandemic is arguably much more stressful than work. I'm much more stressed than I would be in an office. Could be the particular variety of stress, but that's post-hoc rationalisation.

A good piece of general evidence I once heard against this is: premature births & miscarriages did not increase in London during The Blitz (I think they may have even reduced). There's a big narrative around stress and all of its wild short-term health implications, but I'm not convinced it translates into reality. It's not easy to measure.

watwut• 6 years ago

It is also unfair to expect someone to just be 'equally performing' in the workplace during pregnancy.

I was equally performing during pregnancy. The thing about pregnancy is that it varies a lot.

MandieD• 6 years ago

Working exclusively from home since mid-March has certainly made some aspects of pregnancy easier - if I was tired, I could cross the hall and take a short nap in a proper bed, and had my whole house of food to choose from at any time, the quality of which is more under my control than what happens to be in the company canteen or vending machines that day, and wasn’t killing 1.5-2 hours a day getting to and from the office.

Also, I wasn’t exposed to all the other random illnesses besides Covid-19.

If this wasn’t our first kid, I probably would have been more stressed due to childcare problems, though.

This being Germany, I’ve been off work since I hit week 34, pandemic or no pandemic.

bE9a3S5So8igd32• 6 years ago

Less drinking/clubs

rightbyte• 6 years ago

I guess it is to early for that since most women only accidentally drink during the first two months of pregnancy?

supercanuck2• 6 years ago

My labor and delivery nurse MIL speculates it is because of the increase in fevers associated with Covid. More young moms coming in with fevers and testing positive with Covid.

lolinder• 6 years ago

Fevers cause fewer preterm births? Can you explain how that works?

supercanuck2• 6 years ago

Parents are losing their babies sooner due to fevers.

6274672• 6 years ago

Adding my uneducated guess:

- there's some evidence that healthcare in general can benefit from deliberate less intervention by patients and medical staff [0]

- maternity intervention is notorious for intervention (historically for good reasons) yet, today, so much extra can be profited by just pre-planning interventions that are distorting incentives [1]

- pandemic has raised the stakes of leaving home, particularly visiting hospitals so people think twice before deciding to go for intervention - patients preserveer more. That includes expecting mothers.

[0] this an opinion https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/19/patien...

[1] https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/too-much-too-soon-address...

paublyrne• 6 years ago

This seems plausible if induced labours were not excluded from the data sets.

6274672• 6 years ago

this question will sound as uneducated as the speculation above: aren't induced labours only 1 scenario of (possibly) superfluous intervention?

Also, I couldn't find reference in the article where they describe that data as being excluded..

sebazzz• 6 years ago

I was thinking in terms of less travel induced stress, both physical and mental.

pacamara619• 6 years ago

In Switzerland we had a massive spike in untreated heart attacks precisely because your third point. It's good that people don't go to the ER for minor things but people should know that symptoms of a heart attack are not to be taken lightly.

AMC54321• 6 years ago

I was on pre term labour watch last year and spent 12 weeks on bed rest in hospital. While the drs never knew the reason for why I was at risk (body showed early labour signs) I felt it was likely stress related. Spending 3 months in bed with all my meals provided and my basic needs met enabled me to relax and get to term. Old school treatment but it proved to work. I'd say stress correlates directly to pre term births.

Hospitals see significant drop in premature births during lockdown

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