New hope to cut premature births

Electrical impulses make muscles in the womb contract

Scientists believe they have discovered how thow to predict, weeks in advance, the day on which a pregnant woman will go into labour.

Doctors at Leeds University, UK, have found that as an expectant mother approaches labour, regular electrical impulses make muscles in the womb contract as they prepare to push out the baby.

These distinct bursts of electrical activity can be measured by placing electrodes on the woman's stomach.

This will help predict when a woman is going to go into labour too early, giving doctors time to stop it and so reduce the number of premature births.

Professor James Walker of St James' University Hospital in Leeds told the BBC: "At the moment, one of the problems we have is we tend to diagnose it quite late and, when we do diagnose it, we are often inaccurate."

At present, only one in 20 babies arrive on the day predicted.

Researchers are still testing the technique but they hope to develop a small device based on their equipment that can be used by women at home.