KKH has launched the Preterm Pregnancy Prevention Programme (P4) to provide personalised care to pregnant women through screening and prediction tools, and strategies to proactively reduce and prevent preterm pregnancies and births.

“Every mother wants the best for their baby. By tackling the issue of prematurity head-on, we hope to make pregnancies safer and healthier for mothers in Singapore and globally, so that every child will have the best start to life and the best health outcomes throughout their life journey,” shared Professor Teoh Tiong Ghee, Director, Maternal and Child Global Health and Care Transformation, KKH, who leads the new programme.

Premature babies can suffer various long-term health consequences and have an increased risk of disability and developmental delays. The psychological and emotional impact of caring for premature babies on the family and society is also of significant concern.

Challenges remain in tackling prematurity and making pregnancy safer

Globally, 10 per cent of all births are delivered prematurely – a rate that has remained constant over the past decade. Despite having an advanced healthcare system, the incidence of prematurity in Singapore was 8.2 per cent¹ in 2023, much higher than neighbouring countries such as Hong Kong (6.5 per cent)² and China (6.9 per cent)³.

"Challenges still remain with spontaneous preterm birth due to the inability to predict it accurately, especially for first-time pregnancies,” added Professor Teoh.

Currently the only significant and reliable risk factor is a history of preterm birth. At KKH, these cases are referred to the KKH Preterm Birth Clinic for close follow-up, with 420 patients being managed by the hospital’s care teams from January to August 2024.

Research, innovation and targeted interventions are key to reduce preterm births

The new Preterm Pregnancy Prevention Programme, supported by Far East Organization, seeks to reduce preterm pregnancy through a three-prong approach to:

1. Enhance research, education and training of health professionals: Care teams will embark on studies into the vaginal microbiome and metabolomics, examining blood markers that change throughout pregnancy. These hold promise for improving screening tools and enhancing the precision of risk predictions.
2. Innovate with personalised prediction and screening tools: Leveraging technology and incorporating artificial intelligence, care teams will develop tools to aid in risk assessments for a personalised management approach tailored to every mother’s health needs.
3. Establish a national database to facilitate proactive, targeted care for at-risk mothers: This database will track all local preterm pregnancies, enabling close monitoring of women with risk factors and anticipating the women’s and their infants’ future health risks, to provide targeted interventions throughout their life course and advance overall well-being. In the long term, information from the database will help care teams identify trends and gain a better understanding of specific challenges faced by couples in Singapore.

Professor Teoh and his team have initiated collaborations with institutions in the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada on the study of preterm birth, as different populations may offer unique findings.