Folate may not help delay preterm

GOTHENBURG, Sweden, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Taking a folate supplement before and during pregnancy may not help prevent spontaneous preterm delivery, a Swedish researcher says.

Dr. Verena Senpiel of the Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden, said the study findings did not support those of a U.S. study.

"Preterm delivery is the major cause of perinatal mortality and morbidity worldwide and still difficult to predict and prevent. So when a recent American study found that preconceptional folate supplementation could reduce the risk for early spontaneous preterm delivery 50-70 percent we hoped to confirm these findings in another big cohort study," Senpiel said in a statement.

Senpiel and colleagues used data on Norwegian mothers and found no significant association between gestational age at delivery and the amount of dietary or supplementary intake of folate -- the vitamin B9.

The study included 18,075 controls and 955 cases of spontaneous preterm delivery taken from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study that totaled 72,989 children. Folate data -- obtained from questionnaires completed at gestational week 17, 22 and 30 was used to divide the women into high folate and low folate groups.

The research findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in San Francisco.