Maternal stress and premature birth

This bachelor thesis is studying the influence of maternal stress on premature birth. Premature birth is a very serious perinatal complication, the incidence of which remains consistent, although health care is constantly improving. In the Czech Republic, the incidence of premature birth is around 8 %. The work has theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part of the thesis is focused on preterm birth, what are its causes, how it can be prevented, what is the diagnosis and management of premature birth. Last but not least the thesis discusses stress as a risk factor for preterm birth. In 2020, a pandemic of COVID-19 hit the world. In March 2020, the first cases appeared in the Czech Republic. A completely new and extraordinary situation has brought many changes and limitations in everyday life of the society, and thus caused an excessive level of stress in the population. Therefore, in the practical part, we focus on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on pregnancy and premature births. The aim of the work was to find out whether this new stressful situation affected the frequency of premature births at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the First Faculty of Medicine and General Teaching Hospital in Prague. We have also studied whether the frequency of premature births has..