Who Does Prematurity Affect?
Reviewed by: My Child Without Limits Advisory Committee September 2009 Any woman can have a baby prematurely. Most preterm births are spontaneous, meaning they just happen. Although the causes of preterm labor are not fully understood, researchers believe that preterm labor may be triggered by the body’s response to certain infections. But in about 40% of cases, doctors cannot determine why the baby was born before term. Preterm babies occur with greater frequency among black infants (18%) and Native Americans (14%) than for Hispanics (12%), whites (11%) and Asians (10%). Black infants were two times more likely than Asian infants to be born premature, and prematurity is the leading cause of infant death for black infants (National Center for Health Statistics).Preterm births are also more common for women carrying twins, triplets or other multiples. Multiple births are 6 times more likely to be preterm than single babies. Women who are very young, such as 20 years old and under, or mu
