When I was a young woman I lost two babies (separate pregnancies) through pre-term birth both at 26 weeks pregnancy. My next pregnancy (live birth) involved sewing up my cervix and staying in hospital for 9 weeks with a lot of ‘drips’ to stop me coming into labour.
It was definitely a tragedy. The doctors weren’t able to give me any reasons for why I came into labour so early. Both the babies died one immediately the other after 24 hours. If they had lived they would almost certainly have had major developmental problems.
There never seemed to be any attempt to diagnose the cause.
Now there is research that shows a clear link between asthma and pre-term birth. And a way to reduce the risk of having a pre-term birth if you are an asthmatic.
Ensure good control of the asthma. This should be a priority throughout the pregnancy.
When I lost my babies knowledge about controlling asthma was much poorer. None of the doctors including the top specialist I eventually ended up with paid any attention at all to my asthmatic condition. Instead of treating my asthma they prescribed valium!
It might have saved two babies’ lives and a huge amount of anguish for innocent young parents if there had been a better medical understanding of the importance of controlling asthma well in pregnancy to protect against pre-term birth happening.