It takes a long time to make a human. The sperm that fertilises the ovum (egg) to form an embryo begins its development a couple of months before ejaculation, but the ovum itself begins development a generation before then. All of the ova (eggs) in a woman’s ovaries develop before her own birth. The ovum that was fertilised to make you began its development in your grandmother’s uterus! When you consider this timescale, the normal length of gestation — 40 weeks — accounts for a small fraction of the time it takes to make a human. But a lot must happen during those 40 weeks, and if birth occurs early, there’s not enough time for the completion of normal development.
Preterm birth is defined as birth before 37 completed weeks of gestation. Compared to babies born at term (40 weeks), preterm babies have higher rates of illness and death. The earlier in gestation that birth occurs, the higher the risk.
The cause of preterm birth is unknown. We can’t predict which pregnancies will end in preterm birth and once preterm labour starts, we aren’t very good at stopping it. We do know that there are a bunch of things that increase the likelihood of preterm labour and preterm birth, which might be avoided, or other things that can be done to protect against babies being born preterm. Male partners can do some of these things to reduce the risk of preterm birth.
Provide support
The lead-up to childbirth can be a stressful time for everyone. For mothers, stress is associated with an increased risk of preterm birth. A partner’s support can help to reduce mothers’ stress and reduce the risk of preterm birth.
Be smoke-free
There are a few ways in which smoking can influence the risk of preterm birth. Smoking by mothers and fathers increases the risk of preterm birth, whether it’s during pregnancy or even before. For men, at least some of this effect is due to damage to the DNA in sperm, which also causes other negative consequences for the pregnancy and child development. Helping their pregnant partners to stop smoking is another way that men can help to prevent preterm birth.
Stay in shape
Large studies of Chinese pregnancies have found associations between preterm birth and a father being overweight or obese. Other negative pregnancy outcomes are also associated with paternal body mass index. (It’s worth noting that being underweight is also associated with these negative outcomes.)
Don’t wait too long
Advanced age of fathers is associated with preterm birth, with one study showing that the risk of very preterm birth (less than 32 weeks of gestation) rises by about 2% every year over 24 years of age.
There are some things (like genetics) that fathers can’t do anything about, which increase the risk of preterm birth, but knowing what you can control will help you to take responsibility to achieve the best chances of a healthy pregnancy and child.
Tim Moss
Healthy Male Health Content Manager
Associate Professor Tim Moss has PhD in physiology and more than 20 years’ experience as a biomedical research scientist. Tim stepped away from his successful academic career at the end of 2019, to apply his skills in turning complicated scientific and medical knowledge into information that all people can use to improve their health and wellbeing. Tim has written for crikey.com and Scientific American’s Observations blog, which is far more interesting than his authorship of over 150 academic publications. He has studied science communication at the Alan Alda Centre for Communicating Science in New York, and at the Department of Biological Engineering Communication Lab at MIT in Boston.
