BEIJING, April 23 (Xinhuanet) -- The number of women giving birth prematurely in Demark over the past decade has reached a level of alarming propotions,according to a Danish study published this week in the British Medical Journal. 

    Doctors believe that rise in the number of women giving birth at a much older age for the first time may contribut to the phenomenon. 

    The study investigated 646,000 deliveries ¡ª almost all live births ¡ª in Denmark between 1995 and 2004.

    Researchers found that the number of deliveries occurring before nine months of pregnancy had increased by almost a quarter.

    Factors that normally increase the chances of a pre-term birth include fertility treatment, an earlier premature birth, obesity or cervical surgery.

    Researchers also found that among women without the above said factors, the rate had increased more than 50 per cent.

    Andrew Shennan, Professor of Obstetrics at King¡¯s College London School of Medicine, at St Thomas¡¯s Hospital, linked the trend to the growing number of women deciding to postpone having children, though he also considered increasing female obesity to be a contributing factor.

    Concerns have been raised by many gynaecologists and obstetricians about the health impacts of the rapid rise of career women becoming pregnant later in life. Fertility problems increase after 35, and greatly so for women over 40.

   According to the Office for National Statistics in Demark, the over-35s have the fastest-growing birthrates. Women having babies in their forties have nearly doubled in ten years. The number in their thirties is up by two thirds and outstrips those in their twenties.

    Pre-term babies are more likely to develop severe mental and physical disabilities.

    ¡°Premature babies are at great risk of death and disability, and the total health burden to the population will not change unless the number can be reduced,¡±Professor Shennan said.Enditem

    (Agencies)