Early births pose new health risks for newborns
By Nathanael Johnson
December 27, 2010
San Francisco Chronicle

The number of women giving birth early - often for no medical reason - has increased dramatically during the past two decades, altering the way we bear children and posing new health risks, experts say.

The average time a fetus spends in the womb has decreased by seven days in the United States since 1992, according to researchers and data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Researchers say shorter pregnancies coincide with a large number of women and doctors now scheduling childbirth for convenience. One study of nearly 18,000 deliveries in 2007 showed that 9.6 percent were early births - through scheduled inductions or C-sections - for nonmedical reasons. ...