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Background: The vaginal microbiome has been associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes, but information on the impact of diet on microbiome composition is largely unexamined., Objective: To estimate the association between prenatal diet and vaginal microbiota composition overall and by race., Methods: We leveraged a racially diverse prenatal cohort of North Carolina women enrolled between 1995 and 2001 to conduct this analysis using cross-sectional data. Women completed food frequency questionnaires about diet in the previous 3 months and foods were categorised into subgroups: fruits, vegetables, nuts/seeds, whole grains, low-fat dairy, sweetened beverages and red meat. We additionally assessed dietary vitamin D, fibre and yogurt consumption. Stored vaginal swabs collected in mid-pregnancy were sequenced using 16S taxonomic profiling. Women were categorised into three groups based on predominance of species: Lactobacillus iners, Lactobacillus miscellaneous and Bacterial Vaginosis (BV)-associated bacteria. Adjusted Poisson models with robust variance estimators were run to assess the risk of being in a specific vagitype compared to the referent. Race-stratified models (Black/White) were also run., Results: In this study of 634 women, higher consumption of dairy was associated with increased likelihood of membership in the L. crispatus group compared to the L. iners group in a dose-dependent manner (risk ratio quartile 4 vs. 1: 2.01, 95% confidence interval 1.36, 2.95). Increased intake of fruit, vitamin D, fibre and yogurt was also associated with increased likelihood of membership in L. crispatus compared to L. iners, but only among black women. Statistical heterogeneity was only detected for fibre intake. There were no detected associations between any other food groups or risk of membership in the BV group., Conclusions: Higher consumption of low-fat dairy was associated with increased likelihood of membership in a beneficial vagitype, potentially driven by probiotics., (© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

We aimed to determine the relationship of douching prior to pregnancy and bacterial vaginosis (BV) during pregnancy on preterm birth, addressing individual and joint effects. We used a prospective cohort study and assessed vaginal microflora using gram stains and Nugent's criteria. Douching behaviour was based on self-report about the 12 months prior to pregnancy. Preterm births were categorised as spontaneous or medically indicated. A total of 2561 women provided vaginal specimens and 1492 provided self-reports on douching behaviour. Bacterial vaginosis assessed at 24-28 weeks' gestation in the absence of douching prior to pregnancy was associated with spontaneous preterm birth (odds ratio = 2.74 [95% confidence interval 1.13, 6.66]) as was douching in the absence of BV (OR = 2.20 [1.29, 3.75]). The combination of BV and douching was unrelated to spontaneous or medically indicated preterm birth. We concluded that acute alterations in vaginal microflora at mid-pregnancy or douching prior to pregnancy were associated with an increased risk of preterm birth, but the combination did not appear to increase the risk further than would be expected.

Studies of pregnancy outcome are generally based either on geographically defined populations, often from birth records, or on clinic or hospital populations. We compared women recruited into a clinic-based study, the Pregnancy, Infection, and Nutrition (PIN) Study, with women who resided in the geographical area of the study (Alamance, Orange, and Wake Counties in North Carolina) and gave birth over the corresponding time period (1996-2000). Clinic participants were more likely to be Black, younger, have lower education, be unmarried, have a more frequent history of adverse pregnancy outcome, obtain prenatal care later, and smoke more cigarettes. Despite that profile, the proportion of clinic participants delivering preterm was somewhat lower than among area women overall (10.8% vs. 11.3%). Black/White risk ratios for preterm birth were markedly different for area (1.6) vs. clinic women (1.1), whereas other predictors were similar. Patterns may differ across groups for many reasons, including self-selection of clinics and varying clinical practices.

This study evaluates maternal age, race, cigarette smoking, prior spontaneous abortion, prior induced abortion, and prior preterm birth in relation to vaginal bleeding during the first two trimesters of pregnancy. Information on vaginal bleeding and predictors came from the Pregnancy, Infection, and Nutrition Study, which enrolled 2806 pregnant women at 24-29 weeks' gestation during 1995-2000 in central North Carolina, USA. Generalised estimating equations were applied to take into account repeated episodes of vaginal bleeding during pregnancy. Women with advanced maternal age and passive smoking exposure were more likely to experience more intense vaginal bleeding during pregnancy, as were women with prior preterm birth. More intense bleeding was also more likely to be reported among women with multiple prior spontaneous abortions or multiple prior induced abortions, but not among women with a single prior spontaneous or induced abortion. The combination of prior spontaneous and induced abortion showed a dose-response association with the occurrence of vaginal bleeding during pregnancy.

An increasing proportion of preterm births result from medical interventions, and the practice of aggregating all preterm births vs. splitting into spontaneous and medically indicated preterm births is inconsistent. While mechanistic and clinical arguments can be offered for either approach, we empirically evaluated the predictiveness of a range of risk factors for preterm birth in the Pregnancy, Infection, and Nutrition Study. Most influences were shared across the two subsets - African-American ethnicity, advancing age, delivery at a university medical centre, prior preterm birth and smoking. Medically indicated preterm births appeared to be associated with intensity of medical care, higher in the university medical centre and lower for the poorest women. Body mass index was positively associated with medically indicated preterm birth and inversely with spontaneous preterm birth. Given the complexity of the aetiological pathways, both aggregation and disaggregation are well justified and should be included in studies of the causes of preterm birth.

The proportion of preterm births associated with structural birth defects has not been adequately quantified. We explored the proportion of preterm infants with structural birth defects diagnosed in the first year of life, as well as the specific phenotypes of birth defects occurring among preterm infants. The data used were from the California Birth Defects Monitoring Program, a population-based registry, as well as data from California vital records corresponding to births and fetal deaths in the period 1984-96. The prevalence of structural birth defects exceeded 8% among deliveries with gestational ages < or = 30 weeks, and prevalence decreased to 2% as gestational age increased to > or = 37 weeks gestation. The decreasing prevalence pattern with increasing gestational age was observed for a variety of anatomically defined birth defect groups suggesting that certain birth defects were not the sole contributors to the elevated prevalences among preterm births. Decreasing prevalence with increasing gestational age was also observed across strata of maternal race/ethnicities, ages, infant's sex and each year studied. These data indicate that structural birth defects may contribute significantly to the proportion of infants who are delivered before 37 weeks gestation.