Not enough evidence yet that probiotics will help reduce the chance of babies being born too early.
Being born early (before 37 weeks) or very early (before 34 weeks) can cause severe health problems for babies, and worry and anxiety for parents. Women who go into labour too soon often have an infection and it is thought that this is what stimulates labour. Normally the vagina has a layer of friendly micro-organisms, which prevent harmful organisms from growing. Sometimes the balance is upset and harmful organisms can start to grow. Probiotics are friendly live micro-organisms which are used to displace the harmful ones, and can be found in Lactobacillus preparations and yogurts containing live cultures. They can be taken by mouth or put into the vagina. The review of trials looked at the use of probiotics to try to prevent early labour and birth. The review found three trials involving 344 women; two trial used probiotics given by mouth and the other looked at using probiotics in the vagina. The studies were too small to look at effectiveness for preventing early labour and birth, but probiotics given vaginally reduced the number of harmful bacteria. Further research is needed.