Scientists at Stanford University in the US have developed a blood test that indicates when pregnant women will be born. A simple blood test can indicate the due date, and the analysis detects hormones that indicate when labor begins, according to the British newspaper "Daily Mail" website.
The test works on the "pre-labor" stage two to four weeks before the baby is born, as it detects an increase in hormones as the woman's body prepares for childbirth and a decrease in blood cell formation as the placenta prepares to separate from the uterus, as well as many immune cells and proteins.
So far, the blood test, which has been tested on 63 women, can predict the day a woman will enter childbirth within 17 days, but researchers, who expect the blood test to be available to women within two years, say its accuracy will improve after testing it on larger numbers.
"A mother's body and functions begin to change about three weeks before actual labor begins," said Dr. Virginia Wayne, co-author of the study and assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford University in the United States.
"Women want to know when they are in labor so they can take time off work, pack hospital bags and tell family members," said Andrew Chenan, professor of obstetrics at Kings College London, who was not involved in the research.
"This blood test will prevent the need for invasive cervical examinations to predict childbirth, which are often used near childbirth, and may also help predict premature labor," he added.
Using blood samples from 63 pregnant women, all of whom gave birth naturally, the scientists searched for more than 7,000 biological markers that might help predict due dates and found 45 significant ones, including increased progesterone, the steroid hormone known to play a vital role in the countdown. For childbirth.
The study also found a regulatory immune protein, IL-1R4, that rises within 30 days before labor. This protein may play an important role in suppressing the body's immune response to birth stress, so that the immune system does not get out of control.
Blood tests showed that the proteins that help the placenta to form blood vessels decrease steadily as labor approaches, as the placenta prepares to separate the blood supply from the uterus.
The average altered levels of proteins, immune cells and hormones help experts estimate a woman’s due date.
In the test study, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, researchers also predicted the birth dates of five women who gave birth unexpectedly early before 37 weeks and those premature births were less predicted, as the blood test was incorrect on average 27 days.
But if it becomes more accurate, it may help doctors predict premature births and give babies steroids to strengthen their lungs before they are born prematurely.
"We found a transition from" pregnancy progression "to the" pre-labor "stage that occurs two to four weeks before the mother goes into labor, said Dr. Ina Stelzer, the lead author of the study from Stanford University.
"We have identified a new method for using the mother's blood to predict when a mother will go into labor," she said.
It is worth noting that the birth dates for expectant mothers at the present time are not precisely determined, as most women give birth between 37 to 42 weeks of pregnancy, and the timing of labor is currently inaccurately estimated, based on an average of 40 weeks of pregnancy, and the size of the child from the examination Ultrasound, but a new blood test helps mothers predict their due date more accurately.
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