Study: Use of steroids in women at risk for late preterm delivery reduces rate of neonatal respiratory complications

PROVIDENCE – Currently, antenatal corticosteroids (betamethasone), which helps mature an infant’s lungs, are recommended for all women going into labor before 34 weeks’ gestation. However, many babies born between 34 and 36 weeks’ gestation also require respiratory support at birth. A recently completed study evaluated whether neonates born at these later gestational ages would also benefit from antenatal corticosteroids.

The research, recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine, confirms the benefit of such drugs for those infants. Dr. Dwight Rouse of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Women & Infants Hospital, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and the Brown/Women & Infants principal investigator for the study, said in a statement, “For many years, obstetric and pediatric providers have known that steroids administered in preterm labor help speed the development of the preterm baby’s lungs at 34 weeks’ gestation or earlier. This new research has shown that these same steroids when given to women who are at risk for late preterm delivery can significantly reduce the rate of neonatal respiratory complications.”

Rouse continued, “This research supports the use of known medications that will allow us to help even more babies get the healthiest start at life …. I am also very grateful for the contribution of Women & Infants’ obstetricians and midwives, who gave their ongoing support to this study and encouraged their patients – to whom I am also profoundly grateful – to participate. As a result, Women & Infants contributed more than 10 percent of the patients enrolled in this large trial, more than any other participating hospital.”

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