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Background: Pregnant women taking prenatal care is vital for the health of the mother and the fetus. The duration of pregnancies provides a useful measure of a woman's natural length of pregnancy and may help in predicting an individual woman's due date. The objective of this study was to understand the factors affecting the duration of gestation among women taking prenatal care in Gondar referral hospital, Ethiopia. Methods: A quantitative research design using secondary data available in the form of antenatal care (ANC) cards in the Gondar teaching referral hospital data set. Kaplan–Meier estimate was used to explain the median survival time of duration of gestation. A multivariate AFT model was performed to identify the factors related to the duration of gestation among women. Results: The mean time of the length of pregnancy was 39.5 weeks. The factors such as, the age of women, number of children, number of doctor consultations, and the stage of gestation were found to be statistically significant (p < 0.05) for the survival time of time to birth of pregnant women in Ethiopia. Weibull AFT model was found to be the best model for predicting the time to birth of pregnant women in Ethiopia. Conclusion: We did not see associations between length of gestation and blood pressure and bleeding during early pregnancy. We also did not find an association with the presence of disease, which has been associated with the length of pregnancy. The frequency of visiting a doctor during the gestation period enhances the length of the gestation period. The shorter gestation period from the due date is dangerous to the health of both mother and her fetus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Preterm birth (PTB,

Background: Preterm birth (PTB, < 37 completed weeks' gestation) is one of the global public health concerns. Epidemiologic evidence on the potential impact of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on PTB is still limited and inconsistent. We aimed to investigate the associations between prenatal PFAS exposure and PTB among singleton live births.Methods: We studied 2849 mother-infant pairs in the Shanghai Birth Cohort (SBC) from 2013 to 2016. Ten PFAS in maternal plasma in early pregnancy (gestational age, median (interquartile range): 15 (13-16) weeks) were measured. Primary outcomes were duration of gestation, PTB, spontaneous PTB and clinically indicated PTB. A linear regression model was used to assess the associations between ln-transformed PFAS and duration of gestation (in weeks). Logistic regression models were applied to estimate the relative risks of these outcomes.Results: The incidence of overall PTB was 4.8% (95% confidence limit: 4.0-5.6%, n = 136) in this study population. In the linear regression analyses, PFAS were not associated with the duration of gestation after controlling for potential confounders. In the multiple logistic models, no significant associations were observed between PFAS and overall PTB, spontaneous or indicated PTB.Conclusion: In this prospective cohort study, we did not observe significant associations between maternal plasma PFAS concentrations in early pregnancy and gestational length, overall PTB, spontaneous or indicated PTB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Longer gestation at term and post-term age is associated with increased perinatal mortality. Nonetheless, recent neuroimaging studies indicated that longer gestation is also associated with better functioning of the child's brain. to assess whether longer gestation in term and post-term (in short: term) singletons is associated with better infant neurodevelopment. cross-sectional observational study. Participants were all singleton term infants (n = 1563) aged 2–18 months of the IMP-SINDA project that collected normative data for the Infant Motor Profile (IMP) and Standardized Infant NeuroDevelopmental Assessment (SINDA). The group was representative of the Dutch population. Total IMP score was the primary outcome. Secondary outcomes were atypical total IMP scores (scores <15th percentile) and SINDA's neurological and developmental scores. Duration of gestation had a quadratic relationship with IMP and SINDA developmental scores. IMP scores were lowest at a gestation of 38·5 weeks, SINDA developmental scores at 38·7 weeks. Next, both scores increased with increasing duration of gestation. Infants born at 41–42 weeks had significantly less often atypical IMP scores (adjusted OR [95 % CI]: 0·571 [0·341–0·957] and atypical SINDA developmental scores (adjusted OR: 0·366 [0·195–0·688]) than infants born at 39–40 weeks. Duration of gestation was not associated with SINDA's neurological score. In term singleton infants representative of the Dutch population longer gestation is associated with better infant neurodevelopment scores suggesting better neural network efficiency. Longer gestation in term infants is not associated with atypical neurological scores. • Longer gestation at term is associated with better Infant Motor Profile scores. • Longer gestation at term is associated with better SINDA developmental scores. • Longer gestation at term is not associated with SINDA neurological scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We related perinatal outcome and quality of prenatal care between 1972 and 1980 to WIC benefits to pregnant women among 11 154 673 births in 1392 counties in 19 states and the District of Columbia, adjusted for time change and between-county variability. WIC was associated with increased first trimester prenatal care (4.1%, p < 0.001), decreased inadequate prenatal care (-5.0%, p < 0.001), longer duration of gestation (0.20 d, p < 0.05), decreased preterm delivery (-0.92%, p < 0.05) and increased birth weight (23 g, p < 0.01). After autocorrelation was accounted for, significance levels for birth weight and frequency of preterm delivery were 0.05 < p < 0. 10. Including counties with incomplete time series data, the estimated effect on birth weight was 23.9 g (p = 0.004) and on decreased fetal mortality was -2.3/1000 (p = 0.04). Among those with < 12 y schooling, whites had a 1.8% reduction in preterm birth (p < 0.05) and blacks a 2.0% reduction (p < 0.05). The estimated effect on birth weight for less-educated whites was 46.6 g (p < 0.001). The predominant effects of WIC were on improved physiologic status of the mother and fetus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The effects of day of mating and litter size on gestation length in dogs were studied in 36 beagle bitches (age 2–10 yr). The day that plasma progesterone concentrations exceeded 2ng/mL was considered the day of ovulation; dogs were randomly assigned to be bred once, 1–5 days after the estimated day of ovulation. The interval from mating to parturition was negatively correlated with the number of days from estimated ovulation to mating (P <0.01). Gestation length (interval from ovulation to parturition) was almost constant at 63.9±0.2 days (mean±S.E.M.), with no significant relationship between the number of fetuses and the duration of gestation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]