Preterm birth, i.e. birth before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy, is a major public health concern that complicates on average 11.1% of the pregnancies worldwide. Preterm infants are at increased risk of short-term consequences but are also more susceptible to severe life-long diseases. Majority of the preterm births occur after a spontaneous onset of labor, and currently, there are no effective strategies to prevent preterm birth.

According to current understanding, both maternal and fetal factors may influence the risk of spontaneous preterm birth. These risk factors include environmental (pregnancy related) risk factors, as well as a genetic predisposition. Twin studies and segregation analyses indicate that 30-40% of the variation in birth timing is heritable.

In this work, we plan to improve our understanding of the biology of birth timing by identifying genes involved in spontaneous preterm birth. This will allow more effective preventative strategies to be developed. We will accomplish this by comparing data we have previously collected on families with preterm birth that occurs for no identifiable reason to this important genotyped Avon longitudinal mother-child data set.