Preterm Birth in the United States

Janet M. Bronstein, PhD, is a health services researcher on the faculty of the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health. Her disciplinary background is in cultural anthropology. Dr. Bronstein focuses her research on maternal and child health issues, and on the U.S. healthcare system, with a special interest in healthcare systems for disadvantaged populations. She was a member of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Patient Outcome Research Team (PORT) on low birth weight births, and a researcher with the Agency's Child Health Insurance Research Initiative (CHIRI). Dr. Bronstein is a long-time evaluator of Medicaid innovations for the care of women and children across several states. Her teaching focus is on public health ethics.

Introduction.- The Clinical Dimension: What Causes Preterm Births and How Are They Prevented and Treated?.- The Epidemiological Dimension: Who Has a Preterm Birth?.- The Cultural Dimension: How Do We Think about Preterm Births?.- The Political Dimension: How Do We Control the Preterm Birth Problem?.- The Medical Care Dimension: How Do We Deliver Care for Preterm Births?.-The Ethical Dimension: How Do We Make Decisions about Preterm Births?.- Epilogue.- Methodological Appendix.

"Preterm Birth in the United States is an intricate and comprehensive exploration of the persistently high infant mortality rate in the United States, to which preterm birth is a major contributor. ... Preterm Birth in the United States should be required reading for students of medicine, nursing, and public health. It would work well as a core text in medical anthropology and comparative health systems courses, especially as a counterpoint to more ethnographic texts." (Sarah E. Rubin, Medical Anthropology Quarterly, June, 2017)