New Treatment for Preventing Pre-Term Birth

A new study out of Detroit has found that a simple progesterone gel can help decrease the risk of preterm delivery and breathing problems in babies – a finding which, according to study leader Dr. Robert Romero, “will have major implications for obstetrics.”

The study was led out of the Perinatology Research Branch of the National Institutes of Health, and followed 458 women across 45 medical centers. Within the group, preterm births were reduced by 45 percent, and only 3 percent of babies who’s mothers had received the gel had breathing issues, as opposed to the 7.6 percent who received the placebo.

The numbers surrounding preterm birth aren’t good. According to Dr. Roberto Romero, the head of the study, roughly 12 percent of babies born before 33 weeks die either at birth or before turning one year old. Of the babies who survive, many are afflicted with serious physical and developmental disabilities.

Romero hopes the findings from his current study will build on those from previous research conducted by his team. In a prior study, the team found that women with a cervix measuring between 10 and 20 millimeters had a 50 percent chance of having a premature birth.

With his latest findings, he hopes that cervical measurement will become more widely accepted as a means to identify risk of an early birth, and that the women who are identified as at risk will be given the progesterone gel to help reduce their chances of preterm delivery.

Romero’s current study is published in the online journal Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology.