Article: Increase in premature babies pushes NHS to breaking point

IT'S a nerve-wracking time for any mother-to-be as her due date approaches.

But growing numbers of expectant mothers are not going through that period of mounting nerves and anticipation. For over the last generation there has been a dramatic rise in the number of premature babies, a study by Edinburgh University researchers has found.

The first comprehensive study of its kind has found a 16 per cent rise in the number of early births over the last 25 years.

But the report by Professor Jane Norman, director of the Tommy's Centre for Maternal and Fetal Health Research at Edinburgh University, is not as alarming as it might sound.

First and foremost, most expectant mothers are unaffected, ...

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