TOPLINE:

Women with a history of successfully treated preterm labour who delivered at term faced a higher risk for preterm birth during the subsequent pregnancy than those who delivered at term without any such history.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers conducted a case-control study of 278 women with two consecutive singleton pregnancies (2000-2014) to assess the risk for preterm birth among those who delivered at term after an episode of preterm labour managed successfully.
• The analysis focused on 114 women who were admitted during their first pregnancy for preterm labour that was treated successfully with tocolysis between 24 + 0 and 34 + 6 weeks of gestation and ultimately delivered at term.
• Two control groups were included: a spontaneous preterm delivery group that comprised 50 women who experienced preterm delivery during their first pregnancy and a term delivery group that comprised 114 women who delivered at term during the previous pregnancy.
• The primary outcome was spontaneous preterm birth (< 37 + 0 weeks of gestation) during the second pregnancy.

TAKEAWAY:

• The preterm labour group had higher rates of spontaneous preterm birth before 37 weeks of gestation during the second pregnancy than the term delivery group (18.4% vs 4.4%; P < .001) but lower rates than the spontaneous preterm delivery group (18.4% vs 34.0%; P = .044).
• Moreover, they had higher rates of preterm birth before 34 weeks of gestation during the second pregnancy than the term delivery group (6.1% vs 0%; P < .001) but lower rates than the spontaneous preterm delivery group (6.1% vs 16.0%; P < .047).
• The mean gestational age at the second delivery was lower in the preterm labour group than in the term delivery group (38.2 vs 39.3 weeks) but was higher in the preterm labour group than in the spontaneous preterm delivery group (38.2 vs 36.6 weeks; P < .001 for both).

IN PRACTICE:

"Screening for women at risk of preterm birth is important in the management of their pregnancies, and the identification of risk factors could enable the use of specific interventions that might prove helpful," the authors wrote.

SOURCE:

This study was led by Thibaud Quibel, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Poissy-Saint-Germain-En-Laye Hospital, Poissy, France. It was published online on September 09, 2025, in Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica.

LIMITATIONS:

The case-control nature of the study may have introduced uncontrolled confounding biases. Cervical length measurements were not obtained for asymptomatic women with previous preterm labour who delivered at term. Healthcare providers were not blinded to cervical length results.

DISCLOSURES:

No funding information was provided for this study. The authors declared having no conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.