Microbiome of a woman's reproductive tract may predict preterm birth

Microbial communities in the reproductive tracts of women who delivered their babies too soon were different from those of women who delivered full term, scientists have found. Those differences were found early in the pregnancies and tended to persist throughout the pregnancies. The researchers also found that the patterns of women's microbiomes changed immediately after they delivered their babies, and did not revert back to pre-pregnancy patterns in some cases until at least a year later.