A team of New Zealand medical researchers believes it has pinpointed a big factor in premature births.
The Auckland University's Liggins Institute researchers are putting the births down to diet around the time of conception.
There are 3,500 babies born prematurely in New Zealand each year.
New research shows half of such early births could be linked to diet around the time of a woman getting pregnant.
"I think that we can be absolutely certain now that even subtle changes in the environment of the developing egg, of the developing sperm and the fertilised egg in the first few weeks in the womb, has lifelong consequences," professor Peter Gluckman told ONE News.
The scientists accidentally stumbled upon the finding while experimenting with sheep.
"That's a major new concept in developmental biology - that the length of pregnancy is set by something that happens around the period of conception and there's an echo of that many months later when the baby being born premature," Gluckman said.
With phase one of the research now complete, scientists are working with scientists overseas to track the diets of women in the days just prior to conception and just after conception.
In doing so they hope to pinpoint exactly what is the crucial period for making sure the diet is right.
Gluckman is cautious for now. All that can be certain is that a diet should be adequate in vitamins, proteins and carbohydrates, properly balanced and that women should not be dieting at the time they conceive, he said.
Scientists hope their research will change the lifestyles of would-be parents and cut back the number of risky, premature births.
