According to a recent study, the analysing of some fast-evolving genes might aid researchers in getting an improved understanding of what are the reasons behind few babies being born prematurely.

US scientist Dr Louis Muglia from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine along with his colleagues reported their discoveries on Friday in PLoS Genetics.

While a few of the premature births have reasons behind them like infections, majority of them do not have any known cause.

According to Muglia, studies on human pregnancy making use of animal models have not been accurate given the fact that human physiology in pregnancy is unique and unlike all other animal physiology.

Therefore, an evolutionary perspective was taken by the scientists who have the reasons that the genes involved in birth timing must have evolved sooner in the wake of the awkward nature of human birth.

As compared to other species, human babies are born with a comparatively large brain and head, while human mothers have a birth canal that is comparatively narrow.

It is the belief of Muglia and his colleagues that human pregnancy quickly evolved for optimising the size of infants at birth to decrease the chances of the death of mother and baby during childbirth.