Predicting and preventing preterm birth in Europe: current challenges and gaps

The PTB burden is a persistent concern across Europe. Constituent populations are diverse, comprising a mosaic of risk factors of varying significance that fail to predict the majority of PTBs. During this time of evolving demographics in the Europe, assessing PTB risk becomes even more challenging. The stagnation of PTB incidence rates also strongly suggests that new tools are needed to achieve improvements for mothers, babies, public health, and to reduce associated long-term costs of PTB. To move forward, optimizing gestational age and neonatal outcomes in Europe will require more unified guidelines, optimized implementation of known preventative strategies, investment in novel risk assessment tools, and public health policies that address modifiable risk factors both pre- and post-conception. Addressing these gaps is essential to reduce PTB-related health burdens and promote maternal and neonatal well-being across diverse European settings.