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Metrics details. Prenatal corticosteroid administration in preterm labor is one of the most important treatments available to improve neonatal outcomes; however, its beneficial effects on late preterm infants after the 34th week of gestation remained unknown. All neonates were followed up within hospitalization to assess the neonatal outcome.
There was no difference between the two groups in other neonatal adverse events or death. Peer Review reports. In this condition and to maximized fetal lung development, some conservative treatments are recommended in the last weeks of pregnancy.
In this regard, the administration of glucocorticoids has played a pivotal role [ 2 ]. Human studies have also shown that betamethasone used during pregnancy can potentially affect placental function, fetal growth, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis development, and endocrine stress responses during infancy [ 9101112 ].
In the fetal period, prenatal use of betamethasone in pregnant women whose fetuses are stunted has resulted in a transient improvement in blood flow to the uterus and umbilical arteries [ 13 ]. In general, prenatal glucocorticoids are widely used in pregnancies that are prone to preterm delivery.
But the effects of these drugs on late preterm infants after the 34th week of gestation remained unknown [ 15 ]. However, it is now clear those infants born during the late preterm have more infant and childhood problems than term infants.
For this reason, this question remains unanswered whether prenatal glucocorticosteroid administration is beneficial in this population. All neonates were followed-up within hospitalization to assess the neonatal outcome. Multiple pregnancies, major malformations, preterm delivery for fetal or maternal indications, elective caesarian section, maternal medical complication such as GDM or hypertension ….
The study was conducted after approval by the Vice-Chancellor for Research and also the ethical committee at Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Neonatal information in this study was taken from the statistical population of Vali-e-Asr Hospital Neonatal Research Center located in Imam Khomeini Hospital between and All neonates were followed-up within hospitalization to assess the study variables including gestational age at delivery, Apgar score of the first and fifth minute of birth, and the occurrence of neonatal complications including RDS, Infantile transient tachypnea of the newborn TTNapnea, intraventricular hemorrhage IVHnecrotizing enterocolitis NECneonatal sepsis, hypoglycemia, needing continuous positive airway pressure CPAP or respiratory support, surfactant use, length of hospital stay, and also neonatal death.
The study endpoint was to assess and compare the pointed sequels in the two groups of neonates with and without receiving betamethasone. Continuous variables were compared using the t-test or Mann-Whitney test whenever the data did not appear to have normal distribution or when the assumption of equal variances was violated across the study groups. Categorical variables were, on the other hand, compared using the chi-square test. For the statistical analysis, the statistical software SPSS version Baseline characteristics in the two groups of neonates receiving and not receiving betamethasone are shown in Table 1.
The two groups were matched for baseline variables including gender, average anthropometric parameters including body weight, height, head circumference, and gestational age at delivery. With regard to neonatal consequences and outcomes Table 2it was found no difference between the two groups of neonates in the prevalence rate of some neonatal complications including TTN, neonatal apnea, NEC, sepsis, IVH, hypoglycemia, requiring neonatal resuscitation, PPV or CPAP, tracheal intubation, needing surfactant use, asphyxia, or Apgar score.
Prenatal corticosteroid administration in preterm labor is one of the most important treatments available to improve neonatal outcomes. However, it should be noted that the effect of corticosteroid therapy may vary depending on the cause of preterm delivery, the mood of delivery, maternal factors, and different protocols of corticosteroids used. In this regard, some animal and human-based studies could confirm the beneficial effects of corticosteroids, but some others did not recommend such regimens due to their related adverse consequences.
Some studies showed that the use of such regimens reduced birth weight as well as increase the risk for hypoglycemia in preterm infants. Another major concern with cases that have been exposed to corticosteroids during pregnancy was the likelihood of developing cardiovascular complications and metabolic effects, especially at older ages.
In a study by Gyamfi-Bannerman et al. In another clinical trial by Gyamfi-Bannerman et al. In another study by Ontela et al. In their study, the incidence of respiratory problems was even higher in the exposure group, but this difference was not significant. In a prospective study of respiratory problems in delayed preterm labor by Shaikh et al. A review study by Kamath-Rayne et al.
Thus this treatment, apart from respiratory problems, did not eliminate other problems of premature infants.
Another review by Groom et al. This study has an innate limitation of being conducted as a retrospective study. We also emphasis that perspective study on more number of patients maybe in a multicenter study is needed. All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article [and its supplementary information files ]. Practice Bulletin No. Obstet Gynecol.
Article Google Scholar. Antenatal corticosteroids for accelerating fetal lung maturation for women at risk of preterm birth. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. Article PubMed Google Scholar. A controlled trial of antepartum glucocorticoid treatment for prevention of the respiratory distress syndrome in premature infants.
Glucocorticoids and fetal programming part 1: outcomes. Nat Rev Endocrinol. Antenatal corticosteroid therapy: historical and scientific basis to improve preterm birth management. Antenatal corticosteroids for fetal lung maturity - too much of a good thing? Curr Pharm Des. Glucocorticoids, antenatal corticosteroid therapy and fetal heart maturation.
J Mol Endocrinol. Optimizing antenatal corticosteroid therapy. Semin Fetal Neonatal Med. Controversies in antenatal corticosteroids. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal Axis and the fetus. Horm Res Paediatr. Antenatal corticosteroid administration for foetal lung maturation. Battarbee AN. Use of antenatal corticosteroids in preterm Prelabor rupture of membranes. Obstet Gynecol Clin N Am. The short term fetal cardiovascular effects of corticosteroids used in obstetrics. Australas J Ultrasound Med.
Antenatal corticosteroids beyond 34 weeks gestation: what do we do now? Am J Obstet Gynecol. Groom KM. Antenatal corticosteroids after 34 weeks' gestation: do we have the evidence? ACOG technical bulletin. Preterm labor. Number June Replaces No. Int J Gynaecol Obstet.
Effect of antenatal corticosteroids on respiratory morbidity in singletons after late-preterm birth. N Engl J Med. Effect of antenatal steroids on respiratory morbidity of late preterm newborns: a randomized controlled trial.
J Trop Pediatr. Respiratory morbidity in late-preterm births: a prospective observational study at a tertiary care hospital. J Obstet Gynaecol India. Antenatal corticosteroids after 34weeks' gestation: do we have the evidence? Download references. You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar. All authors have read and approved the manuscript. Correspondence to Narges Zamani. This research was carried out in compliance with the Helsinki Declaration and was approved by the ethical committee at Tehran University of Medical Sciences IR.
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
Reprints and Permissions. Arimi, Y. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth 21 Download citation. Received : 28 April Accepted : 03 November Published : 16 November Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:. Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative.
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Premature babies are more likely to have health complications because they are underdeveloped and fragile. To prevent hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy HIE and other serious problems, physicians often attempt to prevent preterm birth by giving the mother a cervical cerclageadministering progesterone therapyor performing other interventions. In most cases, doctors will also take certain measures to minimize the risks associated with prematurity.
Two common treatments that may be given to the mother before a premature delivery are magnesium sulfate and betamethasone.
Here, we will focus on betamethasone. Betamethasone is a corticosteroid that has several medicinal uses. In adults, betamethasone can reduce itching, swelling, and allergic reactions. In infants, betamethasone can help to prepare premature infants for the outside world.
It then travels through her bloodstream to reach the baby 1. One of the primary benefits of antenatal betamethasone is that it can help speed up lung development in preterm babies. Betamethasone causes the release of surfactant, a substance that lubricates the lungs so that they do not stick together when the infant breathes. Most full-term babies can naturally produce enough surfactant to breathe easily, but this may not be the case for premature infants.
Betamethasone can reduce the risk of serious respiratory problems 2, 3. It is important to note that along with betamethasone, premature babies may require artificially-produced surfactant and breathing support from a ventilator 4. Moreover, betamethasone has been shown to reduce the risk of intracranial hemorrhages brain bleeds and a dangerous type of intestinal infection known as necrotizing enterocolitis 3, 5.
It can also reduce the likelihood that a baby will develop disabilities such as HIE, cerebral palsyand periventricular leukomalacia 2, 7. Research has found that when given late in pregnancy and in small doses, the side effects of betamethasone are minimal 1, 2, 8. Women at risk of delivering prematurely used to be given multiple courses of steroids, but this was associated with lower birth weights and smaller heads.
Today, repeated courses are generally not recommended 1, 8, 9. What Is Betamethasone? What Are the Risks Associated with Betamethasone?
❾-50%}Hide glossary Glossary Study record managers: refer to the Data Element Definitions if submitting registration or results information. Search for terms. Save this study. Warning You have reached the maximum number of saved studies Betamethasone Dosing Interval - 12 or 24 Hours?
The safety and scientific validity of this study is the responsibility of the study sponsor and investigators. Listing a study does not mean it has been evaluated by the U.
Federal Government. Read our disclaimer for details. Last Update Posted : November 10, Follow-up data will be collected by trained clinical research technicians on an electronical case-report-form eCRF.
To avoid women lost to follow-up, they will track women deliveries, especially when taking place outside the investigation centres. A data management plan will be written and follow during all the data management and analysis process.
Data will be handled according to the French law. The eCRFs will be hosted by a service provider into a secured electronic system via a web navigator and protected by an individual password for each investigator and clinical research technician.
The steering committee will have access to the full trial dataset. The sponsor is the owner of the data. The primary non-inferiority statistical analysis will be performed according to both the intention-to-treat and per protocol principle, as it is recommended for non-inferiority trials [ 54 ].
The intention-to-treat population will included all randomised patients according to the treatment group where they have been randomly assigned, regardless of what treatment, if any, they received.
Women who received the first course as they were randomised but who received an incomplete rescue course will be analyzed in their randomisation arm. Analyses will be done after every neonates who reach the primary outcome on the basis of intention to treat. The trial may be stopped for the following reasons:. For the estimation of the boundary curves, we chose a monotone function proposed by Kim and DeMets and generalized by Jennison and Turnbull [ 55 , 56 ].
Critical values of the boundary curves are defined for each interim analysis. At each interim analysis, the maximum likelihood estimator of the difference of treatment failure rates between full-dose and half-dose will be compared to these critical values and the necessity to stop the trial will be checked.
Qualitative variables will be summarised by numbers and percentages of patients in each treatment group. The final primary non-inferiority statistical analysis will be conducted on all the neonates enrolled in the trial, including those who did not participate in the interim analysis.
The difference between the failure rates observed in both arms along with its 2-sided confidence interval will be estimated. The final boundary for difference will be compared to the critical value corresponding to the number of women finally included, to claim or not the non-inferiority.
A figure showing confidence intervals and the margin of non-inferiority will be used to summarize the result on the primary outcome. The analyses on the other pre-specified secondary outcomes will consist in estimations and comparisons between the two arms. The primary analysis, using the confidence interval for the difference between full-dose and half-dose. For both those analyses, we will use the Holm-Bonferroni method to adjust for multiplicity of analyses [ 58 ].
A trial steering committee will include the coordinating investigator TS , the scientific director OB , the biostatistician MU , the methodologists CAi and CAs , and the representatives for the sponsor and for the unit in charge for the data collection and management. They will be responsible for the organization and the coordination of the trial. They will meet on a quarterly basis to review the progress of the trial. The trial safety will be evaluated by an independent Data Safety Monitoring Board DSMB at each interim analysis or when additional analyses will be requested by the sponsor or the steering committee.
The DSMB will include experts in or representatives of the fields of obstetrics, neonatology, and clinical trials methodology. At the first time they met, the DSMB will validate that the methodology is compatible with the safety of the participants. Prior to each DSMB meeting, they will be provided a complete list of all adverse events, and a statistical report including description of the population and results of the interim analysis as described above.
At each meeting, the DSMB may give the advice to temporarily or definitely stop the trial if in their opinion there is an unexpected or unacceptable risk for the women or the newborn, or if the interim analysis suggests the non-inferiority or futility. All modifications will be subject to the approval of these entities. The steering committee will determine the plan for dissemination policy. Authorship for manuscripts submitted for publication will follow the criteria defined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.
Administration of antenatal betamethasone to women at risk of preterm delivery leads to substantial benefits for babies born preterm. Although this treatment is widely used and recommended worldwide, concerns persist regarding its long term effects because adverse events, mainly dose-related, have been reported. Liggins GC. Premature delivery of foetal lambs infused with glucocorticoids. J Endocrinol. However, the good news is that advances in the study of preterm labor have identified effective drugs that may delay delivery.
If your water has broken, you may also be given antibiotics to prevent infection and help you stay pregnant longer. If you are at high risk for preterm labor, your doctor may suggest the hormone progesterone. Read on to learn more about these different preterm labor therapies. Some people go into labor very early.
Steroids are usually injected into one of the large muscles arms, legs, or buttocks of the pregnant person. The injections are given two to four times over a 2-day period, depending on which steroid is used.
The most common steroid, betamethasone Celestone , is given in two doses, 12 milligrams mg each, 12 or 24 hours apart. The medications are most effective from 2 to 7 days after the first dose. Studies have shown that corticosteroids are important and widely used interventions. There is little scientific support that they cause increased risks.
Steroid treatment reduces the risk of lung problems for babies who are born early, particularly for those born between 29 and 34 weeks of pregnancy. A study on mice showed that steroid treatments can reduce the risk of bronchopulmonary dysplasia, a condition that can lead to chronic lung disease in babies. A study showed that early treatment is important to maximize benefits. Steroids may also reduce other complications in babies. A review of studies showed that some babies have fewer problems with their intestines and with bleeding in the brain when their pregnant parent received a course of betamethasone prior to birth.
Staying pregnant for those first 2 days after a corticosteroid shot is the first major milestone for you and your baby or babies. Older data has not shown any significant risks associated with a single course of steroids. A review of studies showed a small increase in the risk of a cleft lip with first trimester corticosteroid use. Use of steroids this early in the pregnancy is not common.
A study indicated a link between corticosteroid use and low birth weight, but research is still ongoing. One data review found that of repeat prenatal corticosteroids given to pregnant people with ongoing risks of preterm labor can reduce the likelihood of baby needing respiratory support at birth.
However, repeat courses were also associated with lower birth weight, length, and head circumference. Effect of antenatal steroids on respiratory morbidity of late preterm newborns: a randomized controlled trial. J Trop Pediatr. Respiratory morbidity in late-preterm births: a prospective observational study at a tertiary care hospital.
J Obstet Gynaecol India. Antenatal corticosteroids after 34weeks' gestation: do we have the evidence? Download references. You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar. All authors have read and approved the manuscript. Correspondence to Narges Zamani. This research was carried out in compliance with the Helsinki Declaration and was approved by the ethical committee at Tehran University of Medical Sciences IR.
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
Reprints and Permissions. Arimi, Y. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth 21 , Download citation. Received : 28 April Accepted : 03 November Published : 16 November Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:. Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative.
Skip to main content. Premature babies are more likely to have health complications because they are underdeveloped and fragile. To prevent hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy HIE and other serious problems, physicians often attempt to prevent preterm birth by giving the mother a cervical cerclage , administering progesterone therapy , or performing other interventions.
In most cases, doctors will also take certain measures to minimize the risks associated with prematurity. Two common treatments that may be given to the mother before a premature delivery are magnesium sulfate and betamethasone.
Study record managers: refer to the Data Element Definitions if submitting registration or results information. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study.
To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contacts provided below. For general information, Learn About Clinical Studies.
We're building a better ClinicalTrials. Check it out and tell us what you think! Hide glossary Glossary Study record managers: refer to the Data Element Definitions if submitting registration or results information.
Search for terms. Save this study. Warning You have reached the maximum number of saved studies Betamethasone Dosing Interval - 12 or 24 Hours? The safety and scientific validity of this study is the responsibility of the study sponsor and investigators.
Listing a study does not mean it has been evaluated by the U. Federal Government. Read our disclaimer for details.
Last Update Posted : November 10, Study Description. The purpose of this study is to determine if there may be a benefit to the newborn if betamethasone is given 12 hours apart instead of 24 hours apart. Detailed Description:. Betamethasone is a medicine given to women expected to deliver after 24 but before 34 weeks of pregnancy. It is very advantageous in preventing or decreasing the many problems these small babies may face if born early.
Betamethasone makes breathing easier for them, also decreases the chance of them bleeding in the head and makes their chances of survival better. This medicine is used routinely in pregnancy but the best timing between doses in not well established. The 'standard' dosing schedule involves giving 2 injections of 12mg of the medicine 24 hours apart.
However, many women deliver before reaching the hour mark, despite the doctors best efforts to try and delay delivery, and therefore miss the opportunity for the 2nd dose. FDA Resources. Arms and Interventions. Outcome Measures. Eligibility Criteria. Information from the National Library of Medicine Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Inclusion Criteria: Pregnant women expected to deliver preterm either induced or spontaneously for any obstetrical or medical indication.
Gestational age between 23 and 34 weeks gestational age. Dating must either be by LMP which is consistent with ultrasound performed at any gestational age, or calculated by a sonogram less than or equal to 23 weeks. Known drug allergy to betamethasone. Given steroid other than betamethasone for lung maturation.
Any contraindication to steroid therapy. Contacts and Locations. Information from the National Library of Medicine To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor. Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials. More Information. A controlled trial of antepartum glucocorticoid treatment for prevention of the respiratory distress syndrome in premature infants.
National Library of Medicine U. National Institutes of Health U. Department of Health and Human Services. Preterm Delivery. Drug: dosing of Betamethasone. Not Applicable. Study Type :. Interventional Clinical Trial. Estimated Enrollment :. Study Start Date :. Actual Primary Completion Date :. Actual Study Completion Date :.
March 28, Key Record Dates.
One of the primary benefits of antenatal betamethasone is that it can help speed up lung development in preterm babies. Betamethasone causes the release of. Betamethasone is a medicine given to women expected to deliver after 24 but before 34 weeks of pregnancy. It is very advantageous in. Women from 37 French level 3 perinatal centres who received the first betamethasone injection (11·4 mg) were randomly assigned to receive a. Betamethasone is a medicine given to women expected to deliver after 24 but before 34 weeks of pregnancy. It is very advantageous in. A single course of betamethasone is recommended for pregnant women between 34 0/7 weeks and 36 6/7 weeks of gestation at risk of preterm birth within 7 days. Optimizing antenatal corticosteroid therapy. Critical values of the boundary curves are defined for each interim analysis. Antibiotics are routinely given to pregnant people in preterm labor when the bag of water surrounding the baby has broken.Your doctor may be helping you take precautions to avoid a preterm birth. Preterm birth can result in issues with the lungs, heart, brain, and other body systems of a newborn baby. However, the good news is that advances in the study of preterm labor have identified effective drugs that may delay delivery. If your water has broken, you may also be given antibiotics to prevent infection and help you stay pregnant longer. If you are at high risk for preterm labor, your doctor may suggest the hormone progesterone.
Read on to learn more about these different preterm labor therapies. Some people go into labor very early. Steroids are usually injected into one of the large muscles arms, legs, or buttocks of the pregnant person. The injections are given two to four times over a 2-day period, depending on which steroid is used.
The most common steroid, betamethasone Celestone , is given in two doses, 12 milligrams mg each, 12 or 24 hours apart. The medications are most effective from 2 to 7 days after the first dose.
Studies have shown that corticosteroids are important and widely used interventions. There is little scientific support that they cause increased risks. Steroid treatment reduces the risk of lung problems for babies who are born early, particularly for those born between 29 and 34 weeks of pregnancy. A study on mice showed that steroid treatments can reduce the risk of bronchopulmonary dysplasia, a condition that can lead to chronic lung disease in babies.
A study showed that early treatment is important to maximize benefits. Steroids may also reduce other complications in babies.
A review of studies showed that some babies have fewer problems with their intestines and with bleeding in the brain when their pregnant parent received a course of betamethasone prior to birth.
Staying pregnant for those first 2 days after a corticosteroid shot is the first major milestone for you and your baby or babies. Older data has not shown any significant risks associated with a single course of steroids. A review of studies showed a small increase in the risk of a cleft lip with first trimester corticosteroid use.
Use of steroids this early in the pregnancy is not common. A study indicated a link between corticosteroid use and low birth weight, but research is still ongoing. One data review found that of repeat prenatal corticosteroids given to pregnant people with ongoing risks of preterm labor can reduce the likelihood of baby needing respiratory support at birth. However, repeat courses were also associated with lower birth weight, length, and head circumference.
Steroids may make diabetes both long-standin g and pregnancy-related more difficult to control. When given in combination with a beta-mimetic drug terbutaline , brand name Brethine , they can be even more problematic.
People with diabetes will require careful blood sugar monitoring for 3 to 4 days after receiving steroids. Some pregnant people are more likely than others to go into labor early. Those at high risk of a preterm delivery include those who:. The most common form of progesterone hormone administered to prevent preterm birth is the OHPC shot, or alphahydroxyprogesterone caproate. The OHPC shot is a synthetic progesterone that is often administered prior to the 21st week of gestation.
The hormone works by keeping the uterus from contracting. The shot is typically given into the muscle on a weekly basis. A prescription is required for this hormone treatment, and both the shots and the suppositories should be administered by a doctor. A review of clinical studies of OHPC has demonstrated its ability to prolong pregnancy. Those at risk of delivering a baby before 37 weeks may be able to stay pregnant longer if they receive OHPC prior to the completion of 21 weeks of pregnancy.
A study demonstrated that if preterm birth does occur, babies who survive have fewer complications if their parent received OHPC before the birth. As with any shot and hormone administration, OHPC shots may cause some side effects. The most common include:. People who receive the pessary are more likely to have unpleasant discharge or irritation in their vagina. There is no indication that OHPC shots have any negative effect on miscarriage, stillbirth, preterm birth, or birth defect risk.
A study contradicted earlier studies and found that the drug was not effective in preventing preterm birth. After the results were released, the ACOG made a statement recommending taking into account the collective body of evidence and using OHPC primarily in very high risk situations. In addition, those with allergies or serious reactions to the shot may wish to discontinue their use.
As well, there are some situations in which a longer pregnancy may be harmful. Preeclampsia , amnionitis , and lethal anomalies or imminent fetal death may make a prolonged pregnancy dangerous. Always consult carefully with a health professional before deciding to receive OHPC shots or suppositories.
Tocolytic medications are used to delay delivery 48 hours or more. Tocolytic drugs include the following medications:. Tocolytics are prescription drugs that should only be administered between weeks 20 and 37 of pregnancy if symptoms of preterm labor exist. In general, tocolytic drugs only delay delivery. All tocolytics, but prostaglandin inhibitors in particular, are effective at delaying delivery between 48 hours and 7 days.
This allows corticosteroids time to speed development of the baby. Instead, they merely give extra time for the baby to develop or for other drugs to work. Tocolytics may also delay delivery long enough for the pregnant person to be transported to a facility with a neonatal intensive care unit if preterm birth or complications are likely. Because certain tocolytic drugs carry different risks, the specific drug chosen should depend on health and personal risks.
There is some controversy over whether tocolytics themselves can cause problems at birth, such as breathing problems for the baby or infection in the pregnant parent, when the drug is given after membranes have ruptured. In addition, each type of tocolytic drug has risks for people with certain conditions.
A doctor should have a thorough understanding of all health problems before prescribing a specific tocolytic drug. Antibiotics are routinely given to pregnant people in preterm labor when the bag of water surrounding the baby has broken.
This is because ruptured membranes put a pregnant person and their baby at greater risk for infection. In addition, antibiotics are frequently used to treat infections such as chorioamnionitis and group B streptococcus GBS during preterm labor. Antibiotics require a prescription and are available in pill form or intravenous solution. Many large studies have shown that antibiotics reduce risks and prolong pregnancy after the water breaks early.
For now, using antibiotics to help treat all preterm labor remains controversial. About 1 in 4 pregnant people will carry GBS, and babies who get infected during labor and delivery can become very sick. Antibiotics can treat GBS and reduce complications of a subsequent infection in the newborn, but carry risks for the parent.
Most healthcare providers test for the GBS bacteria between weeks 36 and 38 of the pregnancy. The test involves taking swab samples from the lower vagina and rectum. Because it can take a few days for test results to be returned, the general practice is to begin treating for GBS before confirmation of infection.
The primary risk of antibiotics during preterm labor is an allergic reaction. In addition, some babies may be born with an infection that has resistance to antibiotics, making treatment of postpartum infections in those babies more difficult. According to ACOG , only those with signs of infection or ruptured membranes early water break should receive antibiotics during premature labor.
Those without signs of infection and with intact membranes should likely not receive antibiotics during preterm labor. In addition, some may have allergic reactions to particular antibiotics. A person with known allergies to antibiotics should receive alternative antibiotics or none at all, following the recommendations of health professionals.
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