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Key research themes
1. What evidence-based clinical strategies reduce the risk of spontaneous and indicated preterm birth in prenatal care?
This research area evaluates various clinical interventions, screening protocols, and management guidelines aimed at preventing spontaneous preterm birth (PTB) and improving outcomes for at-risk pregnancies. These approaches focus on identifying risk factors such as cervical shortening, maternal smoking, and history of preterm birth, and applying targeted measures including progesterone supplementation, cerclage, corticosteroids, tocolytics, and lifestyle modifications. Establishing evidence-based guidelines for prenatal care is critical given PTB's status as a leading cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity worldwide.
Key finding: This comprehensive guideline provides graded evidence-based recommendations for PTB prevention, emphasizing cessation of maternal smoking as the only modifiable risk factor with strong evidence for reducing prematurity (Grade... Read more
Key finding: This article synthesizes current evidence on six practical interventions effective in high-resource settings for reducing PTB, including prevention of non-medically indicated late preterm births, maternal progesterone... Read more
Key finding: This review highlights the heterogeneity of PTB pathogenesis and the challenges in screening and risk identification in prenatal care. It underscores the importance of identifying high-risk women based on factors such as... Read more
Key finding: This quasi-experimental study demonstrates that integrated maternal health care (MHC) programs incorporating preconception care significantly reduce risks of low birth weight, preterm birth, and maternal and neonatal... Read more
2. How do maternal-fetal genetic factors and molecular mechanisms influence the timing of parturition and risks of preterm birth?
This research theme explores the genetic determinants of gestational duration and preterm birth timing, focusing on maternal and fetal genome contributions, gene expression pathways, and molecular signaling involved in maintaining or initiating labor. It addresses the complexity of parturition regulation, including antagonistic maternal-fetal genetic pleiotropy, evolutionary genomic perspectives, and species-specific physiological mechanisms. Understanding these genetic and molecular bases is crucial for identifying novel therapeutic targets and improving risk stratification.
Key finding: This maternal genome-wide meta-analysis identified 22 significant loci associated with gestational duration, and six loci linked to preterm delivery, revealing enriched gene expression changes during labor. Parental allele... Read more
Key finding: This comprehensive review assesses the challenges of elucidating genetic factors underlying birth timing due to evolutionary divergence among mammals affecting progesterone signaling and parturition mechanisms. It highlights... Read more
Key finding: This review critically evaluates the use of animal models to investigate human parturition mechanisms, acknowledging interspecies differences in progesterone regulation and labor initiation that limit direct translational... Read more
Key finding: Although focused on preeclampsia, this review contextualizes the relevance of rodent genetic and pharmacological models to dissect vascular and placental pathologies influencing pregnancy duration and fetal development. It... Read more
3. What psychosocial, behavioral, and lifestyle factors influence prenatal control and how can preconception to prenatal interventions improve fetal and maternal health outcomes?
Research under this theme investigates psychosocial constructs such as the fetal health locus of control, behavioral determinants including smoking and stress, and lifestyle modifications in the prenatal and preconception periods. It assesses the effectiveness of programs aimed at altering health beliefs and behaviors to improve pregnancy outcomes. This area integrates behavioral science with prenatal care innovations to enhance fetal and maternal health through personalized and population-based interventions.
Key finding: This psychometric study validated the Fetal Health Locus of Control (FHLC) scale among nulliparous university students, confirming that internal maternal control beliefs strongly predict positive health behaviors and... Read more
Key finding: Reinforcing the preventive potential of behavioral interventions, this study found that preconception care integrated into maternal health services correlated with improved birth outcomes, including reduced PTB and low birth... Read more
Key finding: This work details the development of a patient-informed mobile application delivering tailored preconception lifestyle interventions for IVF couples, addressing diet, physical activity, and psychosocial factors. Grounded in... Read more
Key finding: This paper contextualizes prematurity within public health by linking long-term neurodevelopmental, cognitive, and physical morbidities to prenatal exposures, including modifiable social determinants. It underscores the... Read more