Preterm birth (birth before 37 weeks' gestation) is the leading cause of death and disability in children under five years of age.
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Preterm birth can also affect the health of the mother.
Women who have had a preterm infant are at a higher risk of poorer health outcomes, especially in the first ten years after birth.
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8% of all births in Australia and New Zealand are preterm. This rate is higher in Māori, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations and in people with recent migrant status.

Despite decades of research, rates of preterm birth are increasing.

There is no single cause of preterm birth.

Therapies given in pregnancy to women at risk of preterm birth, or to babies born preterm shortly after birth, can improve outcomes of preterm babies, but the evidence that guides many of these routine practices is lacking.

Together with perinatal researchers worldwide, PLATIPUS will strive to respond to the World Health Organisation's urgent call “to identify interventions that can reduce the complications of prematurity and improve outcomes for preterm infants”. (WHO, 2023).
‍Born too soon: a decade of action on preterm birth (who.int)

Clinical trials are an excellent way for doctors, nurses, midwives and other health professionals to learn more about illnesses, therapies, procedures and medicines, and how these affect our body. By carefully comparing medicines and therapies that might improve the health of people who are unwell, clinical trials help guide how healthcare is offered.

The downside of a traditional randomised control trial is that these answer one research question at a time. Traditional randomised control trials have to recruit a fixed number of people (a sample size) and researchers must wait until the end of the trial to review the data collected.

PLATIPUS is an innovative type of clinical trial, called an Adaptive Platform Trial (APT), which means that several studies can run at the same time. Each study will investigate a research question that is important in the care of pregnant women or their preterm babies. Most studies will compare medicines or therapies that are already being used to help prevent or treat pregnancy or birth complications, but more research is needed to find out which works best.

One advantage of an APT is that data is constantly reviewed throughout the trial, and adaptations are made accordingly. This could mean new treatments are added or poorer-performing treatments are removed from the study. The ability to add multiple research questions quickly and answer them efficiently allows medical research to progress at a faster rate, improving outcomes for the wider community.

Regardless of whether studies are comparing therapies and medicines in pregnancy or in preterm infants, all PLATIPUS studies will aim to discover which interventions are best and share that information with hospitals, families and the wider community. Doing so will help improve the future health outcomes and wellbeing of pregnant women and people whose baby might (or does) arrive early, and their preterm babies.