Most Prenatal Care Too Late to Cut Prematurity Risk, Study Finds

Most prenatal care may be administered too late to reduce the odds of women giving birth to premature children, according to a new study. American and British researchers have found that mothers who had unusually small fetuses in the first trimester of pregnancy--before most prenatal care is given--were twice as likely to have premature infants. One in 10 babies born in the United States is premature.

The researchers based their findings on ultrasound measurements of the head and body lengths of 4,229 fetuses during their first three months in the womb. Such measurements, they report in the New England Journal of Medicine, were a good way to predict whether a child would weigh too little at birth or be born prematurely.

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Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II