As an OB/GYN physician, I know intimately the dangers of preterm
labor. I’ve held in my arms the mother who lost her preemie
daughter after her uterus inexplicably began contracting and
spewed out her 24 week old baby before she was fully cooked.
I’ve watched the preemies in the nursery get stuck with tubes in
every orifice while incubators try to mimic the womb and
ventilators push air into their undeveloped lungs. I’ve seen the
children, years later, get wheeled into my exam room after
enduring countless surgeries to deal with the disabilities
prematurity can cause. And I’ve attended the pregnant women we
imprison in the hospital for weeks on end as we try to prevent
this deadly pregnancy complication. We don’t know what causes
preterm labor. If we did, we might be able to prevent it. It’s
still one of the great mysteries of obstetrics. While
technological advances like gene therapy and transplant surgery
revolutionize health care, we still don’t understand the most
basic things about how pregnancy works. I