[Evaluation of a tertiary perinatal center's preterm birth rate before and after a changed therapy management]

Preterm birth is a major adverse event during pregnancy. It is the leading cause of neonatal death and neonatal morbidity and produces a significant socioeconomic burden. Therefore, prevention of preterm birth must be a primary objective in obstetrics.

The aim of this publication is to evaluate the preterm birth rate at a tertiary care perinatal center before and after a change in treatment protocol.

We conducted a retrospective analysis of the birth statistics between the federal average and a tertiary care perinatal center from 2003 to 2008 (3,931,833 children born including 358,059 preterm; 7,638 children born including 1,370 preterm) and 2016 to 2021 (4,614,669 children born including 383,675 preterm; 11,363 children born including 1,439 preterm).

The preterm birth rate at the examined university hospital has been decreasing further than the nationwide comparison (18.0% to 12.9% vs. 9.1% to 8.3%; p<0.05). The absolute and relative reductions show the same result (5.1%, 28.1% vs. 0.8%, 8.67%; p<0.05).

Since the implementation of probiotics, cerclage pessaries, and PAMG-1-tests, a significant reduction of the examined center's preterm birth rate has been observed.

So far, prevention of preterm birth has not been included in the quality indicators of perinatal centers; the authors suggest reconsidering this aspect.