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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- The burden of premature births falls heaviest on black mothers.
According to researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, black moms are three-times more likely than white moms to have a premature baby and nearly four-times more likely to have an extremely premature child. Black mothers are also five-times more likely to repeat the experience with another birth. While about 9 percent of white women will have more than one premature baby, about 20 percent of black women have a repeated premature birth.
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Why are black women at higher risk for premature births? The authors write the differences seen between the races could have a genetic basis.
"These findings together highlight the importance of race, particularly after correction for other risk factors, and suggest a probable genetic component that may underlie the public health problem presented by the racial disparity in preterm birth," study author Louis J. Muglia, M.D., Ph.D., writes.
The study was based on an analysis of more than 700,000 births in Missouri between 1989 and 1997.
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, which offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, click on: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
SOURCE: American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, published online Feb. 9, 2007
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