
Hospitals see significant drop in premature births during lockdown - Spoppys
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/19/health/coronavirus-premature-birth.html
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627467
Adding my uneducated guess:

\- there's some evidence that healthcare in general can benefit from
deliberate less intervention by patients and medical staff [0]

\- maternity intervention is notorious for intervention (historically for good
reasons) yet, today, so much extra can be profited by just pre-planning
interventions that are distorting incentives [1]

\- pandemic has raised the stakes of leaving home, particularly visiting
hospitals so people think twice before deciding to go for intervention -
patients preserveer more. That includes expecting mothers.

[0] this an opinion
[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/19/patien...](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/19/patients-
hospital-care-over-intervention)

[1] [https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/too-much-too-soon-
address...](https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/too-much-too-soon-addressing-
over-intervention-maternity-care)

~~~
paublyrne
This seems plausible if induced labours were not excluded from the data sets.

~~~
627467
this question will sound as uneducated as the speculation above: aren't
induced labours only 1 scenario of (possibly) superfluous intervention?

Also, I couldn't find reference in the article where they describe that data
as being excluded..

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AMC54321
I was on pre term labour watch last year and spent 12 weeks on bed rest in
hospital. While the drs never knew the reason for why I was at risk (body
showed early labour signs) I felt it was likely stress related. Spending 3
months in bed with all my meals provided and my basic needs met enabled me to
relax and get to term. Old school treatment but it proved to work. I'd say
stress correlates directly to pre term births.

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Zealotux
Uneducated guess: I've read a few studies linking air pollution to pregnancy
disorders. Maybe the effects are even stronger than previously thought.

~~~
DoingIsLearning
I think the article already provides a more likely educated guess:

"By staying home, some pregnant women may have experienced less stress from
work and commuting, gotten more sleep and received more support from their
families, the researchers said."

I am not saying air pollution should be dismissed as a factor, but the
elephant in the room is that the stress levels experienced in a _lot_ of
workplaces are not compatible with pregnancy.

It is also unfair to expect someone to just be 'equally performing' in the
workplace during pregnancy.

From an evolutionary standpoint high stress levels are created by threats, if
there are threats you are better off (from an evolutionary standpoint)
suffering a miscarriage or early pregnancy since you would more likely be
alive to try another pregnancy later when the external conditions present no
threats.

~~~
bananaface
Being in a global pandemic is arguably much more stressful than work. I'm much
more stressed than I would be in an office. Could be the particular variety of
stress, but that's post-hoc rationalisation.

A good piece of general evidence I once heard against this is: premature
births & miscarriages did not increase in London during The Blitz (I think
they may have even reduced). There's a big narrative around stress and all of
its wild short-term health implications, but I'm not convinced it translates
into reality. It's not easy to measure.

~~~
christophilus
Most likely, pregnant women who aren’t working can rest more. They can sit
when the want, go to the restroom when the want, etc. These are things that
take a cumulative toll when working / add a cumulative benefit when not.

~~~
bananaface
It sounds appealing as an explanation, but so does the general stress
argument. I'm skeptical of concrete explanations in general.

~~~
emn13
The stress of fearing a pandemic is perhaps quite different from the everyday
stresses of work. We may find them both severe - even the fear much worse; but
it's still conceivable the everyday stresses are worse specifically to the
extent they influence birth weight. Perhaps everyday stress is more immediate;
perhaps it's more physical; or perhaps it's more social - or perhaps we're
grasping at straws and it's something else entirely.

In any case; just because a pandemic is stressful doesn't _necessarily_ mean
that stress that matters _here_ isn't lower. All those various strains don't
affect us in the same way.

~~~
bananaface
It could also be that they are sleeping more, which people will try and
shoehorn into: "that's a form of stress!" Stress is a buzzword, I'm wary of
manhandling the theory too much as counterpoints come up, especially if it
involves playing with semantics.

~~~
emn13
Exactly; stress isn't one clearly defined thing, and the forms do matter:
therefore the focus on overall stress isn't that useful.

~~~
bananaface
It's worse than that: "it's stress" is a lexical tautology. _By definition_
anything that causes a miscarriage was a stressor.

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supercanuck
My labor and delivery nurse MIL speculates it is because of the increase in
fevers associated with Covid. More young moms coming in with fevers and
testing positive with Covid.

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lolinder
Fevers cause _fewer_ preterm births? Can you explain how that works?

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supercanuck
Parents are losing their babies sooner due to fevers.

