Premature labour

If you are concerned that, if you go into labour early, that you might find that you are having contractions or your waters might break then it s very important that you seek medical help. We define early labour as less than 37 weeks of gestation, so more than three weeks before your due date, and we certainly recommend that you do call your local hospital or your midwife and then if advised then go straight into hospital. The reason being is that early labours can be quite quick labours and that delivery of a premature baby is much better if it is in the hospital so that the baby can have appropriate support. There are various ways of assessing a woman who might have gone into labour early. In some situations it is appropriate for us to try and stop the labour, so to try and stop the contractions but what evidence has shown now is that the drugs which can stop the contractions in some circumstances - because they don't always work - probably don't improve the baby's outcome over and above allowing time for the woman to be transferred to a hospital which has got the facilities for the baby to be looked after. So one with a neonatal cot space available and also allowing time for the woman to be given a steroid injection, well a course of two steroid injections, to help the baby's lungs mature a bit earlier than they would otherwise do naturally. So women would only generally be offered or be advised to have a drip to stop the contractions temporarily to cover them getting to an appropriate place to deliver the baby or for the babies lungs to be matured with the steroid injection which takes a couple of days.