Flu shot reduces premature birth risk?

I feel like I know everything there is to know about preterm labour and birth. It's not very helpful after the fact, but I gather the facts as obsessively as a squirrel gathers nuts for the winter in the hope that forewarned will be forearmed next time.

Ominous words, 'next time'. I don't know if there will be another pregnancy, another baby. It feels foolish to hope. And yet, I still do, even though sometimes I feel that Max was my only chance at motherhood and that somehow, I screwed it up. Max's death is not something I can undo even if I did know how or why it happened. But the thought that I might be able to do something differently to 'beat the odds' or something like that, stays with me. Though I now know, more than anyone, how little control I have over anything that happens to me, or over life and death, I still find myself looking for ways that I can be just a little bit more in control next time, as if I've learned no lesson at all. It's infuriating, but I guess we're all wired that way, or at least I am.

During my foraging for information I usually come up with the same kinds of stuff. There's the rare story of a 'miracle' baby who has survived birth at 23 weeks which the media have pounced all over. There are the same risk factors touted on websites over and over again, none of which I have - smoking, obesity, low-socio-economic status. There are the hopeful medical journals that document treatments that seem to prolong pregnancy and prevent premature birth, though usually they're still not quite sure how. These include the use of progesterone supplements from 18 weeks, fortnightly testing of fetal fibronectin, a chemical marker, which if present in the cervix is the earliest sign they have that the body is preparing for labour, regular ultrasounds, bed rest from 20 weeks onwards, the administering of oral antibiotics and steroid shots throughout the pregnancy. Hell, I won't even need an obstetrician at this rate. 


What I'm trying to say is, it's unusual to come across something new that I haven't read before. This news article, published in 2011, is brief, but thought-provoking, as I have never read of the connection between flu vaccination and lesser rates of premature birth before. I'm yet to follow up the original research, but here is the story: