On November 15, a 10-year-old mother gave birth to a baby weighing 1.5 kg after 31 weeks of pregnancy. The girl had taken to hospital with contractions and potential life-threatening complications. The girl gave birth to the baby via a cesarean section. Full story

A new research has shown that taking multivitamins before conceiving a child helps women avoid premature birth. Full story

In one of the British hospitals, there has been recently born a premature baby. Its mother rejected the doctors' advice to have an abortion and decided to give birth to the baby, but the delivery began four months earlier. The scientists claim that a woman was incredibly lucky to have her baby alive. Full story

Five-month-old girl Frieda who is the earliest born surviving baby in the world is going to leave hospital for the first time in her life and stay with her parents over the holidays. Frieda arrived into the world on November 7, 2010, after only 152-day pregnancy period, weighing 450 grams and measuring a little more than 27 centimeters. Her parents are Yvonne and John Mangold, 33 and 38. Full story

The doctors at University College London have discovered that premature babies feel pain much more acutely than the infants who are born on time. Judging by these data, the doctors claim that different children require different methods of treatment and care. Full story

British professor of gynecology, Jean Golding, says that the harm from smoking during pregnancy is much more significant than previously thought. She noted that smoking has negative effect on health of smoking mothers, but also significantly increases the risk of premature birth and even likelihood of stillbirth. Full story

The TLC reality star mom Michelle Duggar, whose show 19 Kids and Counting used to be called 17 Kids and Counting once, wouldn’t mind if one day it will be called 20 Kids and Counting. In fact, she would even welcome it! Full story

Artificially sweetened drinks are advertised as a salubrious alternative to sugar-sweetened soft drinks, but they may boost the risk of giving birth to the child prematurely if the mother-to-be indulges in them, a recent study informs. Full story

Premature birth is known to be connected with learning difficulties, and it’s a grave problem facing kids who were born even a matter of a week or two before the fixed date. There’s a new study in the Public Library of Science Medicine that looks into the kinds of learning difficulties that babies born ahead of their due time may encounter in the future - such as autism and dyslexia. Full story

There is one premature delivery per ten births and a minor number of women may give birth as early as after 32 weeks of pregnancy. This increases the risk that a child maybe handicapped and many very preterm babies do not survive. Researchers at the Imperial College in London say premature birth disables a baby not only because underdevelopment but also because the process, triggering premature delivery, influences the fetus directly. They are sure that prevention of premature birth can significantly lower the risk of having a handicapped baby. Full story

It has been known that low birth weight is associated with higher risk of diabetes in later life, says Dr. Magnus Kaijser and her colleagues from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. New studies, however, showed diabetes is linked to poor fetus development and premature birth. Full story