• Question: What causes babies to be born prematurely and late?

    Asked by daleawh to Helen, Jenni, Mark, Martin, Stu on 22 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Helen O'Connor

      Helen O'Connor answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      The ‘due date’ of a baby is only approximately accurate: this is because it is calculated from the date of a women’s last period, and then they add 40 weeks to that. However, the woman might have conceived right after her last period, or up to several weeks later than that. So there is usually a couple of weeks either side of a due date when a baby might be born.

      When a baby is born really prematurely there are all sorts of possible reasons, although it’s not always possible to know what the reason is. These can include when it is a multimple birth (twins or triplets), an illness of the mother like diabetes or an infection, when there is something wrong with the baby, or the woman’s body just can’t hold the baby long enough

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