Why is the rate of premature births so high in this community?

Global Health Why is the rate of premature births so high in this community? August 2, 20267:03 AM ET By  Diaa Hadid ,  Shahzaib Wahlah Baby Ladoo's grandmother, Hanifa, rocks the hammock where the 5-month-old stirs. His mother Mariam, 17, says her son was born prematurely at around seven months gestation. She couldn't afford follow-up care, so she bought him home and is hoping for the best. About 1 in 4 babies in this fishing settlement of Rehri Goth are born prematurely, nearly double the national rate of 14% — and that's one of the world's highest. Scientists in a nearby university say they may have uncovered a bacteria that acts as an indicator of whether a women is likely to birth full term or pre-term. Diaa Hadid/NPR hide caption toggle caption Diaa Hadid/NPR REHRI GOTH, Pakistan –- The wind whips up sewage dried to a powder that's been dumped for years onto an arid riverbed near the fishing settlement of Rehri Goth, on the outskirts of the Pakistani port city of Karachi. In an alley, a man squats over a pile of trash. He fishes out a battered peach and eats it. It's here that Sughran lives in a dusty compound with her extended family. She's only got one name. She doesn't know her age. Some dozen children mill about in tattered clothes. Five are hers. They're the survivors. Sponsor Message On the day we meet, Sughran says it has been seven days since she buried her baby Gulshan. He was born at seven months gestation. She says when she felt her contractions quicken, her husband took her to a hospital miles away in Karachi. But she says they wouldn't admit her because she wasn't their patient. So she rushed to a local hospital, but it was closed for the night. "So my family told me to go to another hospital," she recalls. "I said that I would not go anywhere and decided to deliver the child at home." Baby Gulshan was cold by morning. She buried him in the graveyard near his baby brother Roshan, who died last year. He was also preterm: Sughran says he w...