do premature babies run in the family?

[*noni*e*]

i don't know if this is posted in the right thread or not feel free to move it if its not.
my question as the thread title suggests is do premature babies run in the family? my mum had a prem baby when i was 9 at 25wks sadly she did not survive, living only 2 weeks before an infection caused respitory complications that couldn't be helped... now at 19wks 2days preg i am terrified my baby will be born early also... is this likely? is it hereditory?

[Trillian]

I don't think so Noni, not unless there was an underlying genetic reason why the baby was born early, kwim? This little girl is going to hang around till September I think.

[*noni*e*]

hope so look at all these new threads i am posting!! talk about paranoid!!!

[Trillian]

Don't worry about it Noni, if I had this when I was pg with Lindsay, I can just imagine the threads I would have started LOL.

[Karina]

I dont think its hereditary, unless you had some sort of condition which meant you couldnt carry your baby to term?
everyone else in my family had premmie babies, except for me!

[fionas]

Hi there

I asked my obstetrician about this because my mum and my sister both had premature babies (4 in total) so I thought I'd be a dead cert to go early and that he'd want to keep a special eye on me. However, my doctor says no, family history is not an indicator in itself. All in all, that's quite a relief as my niece was born at 26 weeks (amazingly, she's completely fine) and as I'm currently 25 weeks, I was getting a bit anxious.

[Liz]

Yeah I was worried about this too... actually, more about miscarriage than premmie.. my mum had 3 miscarriages.. each of them getting longer in term, until finally my bro was born 5 wks early and survived. (I know 5 weeks isn't that early these days heh). And then I was right on time.

My OB said a guess at mum's problem could be a certain shape of her uterus, which is characteristic of each pregnancy going longer, and he checked the shape of mine at one of the ultrasounds, probably just to ease my mind more than anything, and it was fine.

Tallon came 3 weeks early, but that's considered term anyway, so he wasn't premmie.

[Tobily]

I think it would depend on the reason the baby was born early.

My best friend has high blood pressure. So does her mother, and so does her sister. The mum had both of them six weeks early, my friends baby was 5 weeks early, and her sisters first baby was born at 29 weeks.
Obviously all related to the blood pressure issues that they all share.
But if the early birth was caused by say an infection, or something else that is just a "one-off" there'd be no concern about you being early as well.
Try not to worry, I'm sure it will be fine

[Gracia]

Its a tough question though.