Drugs To Delay Preterm Labor Harmful For Both Mother And Child

Scientists have now challenged the notion that keeping baby in the womb for full time is beneficial. The use of drugs to delay preterm labor may actually be harmful for both mother and child.

The Dutch study claimed that preterm labor is the main cause of perinatal illness and death in the developed world.

Drugs To Delay Preterm Labor Linked With Adverse Reactions
The use of certain drugs to delay preterm labor is associated with a high rate of serious adverse reactions.

Usually drugs, known as tocolytics, are used to delay delivery for up to 48 hours, so that doctors can get time administer steroids to speed up the baby's lung development, transfer the mother to a center with a neonatal intensive care unit, or both.

For the study, the researchers assessed the rate of serious maternal complications in 1920 women treated for preterm labor with tocolytic drugs at 28 hospitals in The Netherlands and Belgium.

And it was found that the overall incidence of adverse reactions to a tocolytic drug was low.

Periodontal Treatment Does Not Lower Preterm Birth Risk
Routine gum treatments do not reduce the risk of early delivery in pregnant women with periodontal disease, according to a new study by researchers from Duke University Medical Center

But, the researchers discovered increased problems when the tocolytics were delivered in a multi-drug regimen.

Four women needed intensive care treatment after being subjected to this treatment, which the experts point out has "no proven benefit."

Evidence Underlying Repeated Courses of Steroids for Preterm Birth may Be Unsound
Scientists have warned that giving repeated courses of steroid drugs to mothers at risk of preterm delivery may be based on unsound evidence.

According to the authors of the study, further trials into tocolytic drugs need to be undertaken, but in the meantime they suggested that one should discourage combined treatments.

"After 30 years of research we still do not know whether tocolysis benefits the foetus," Discovery News quoted Professor Roger Smith, director of the Mothers and Babies Research Center at the Hunter Medical Research Institute in Newcastle, Australia, as saying in an accompanying editorial with the study.

The authors said that the decision to use tocolysis "should not be taken lightly."

"Accumulating evidence alongside improvements in neonatal care mean that the old assumption that 'keeping the baby inside longer must be a good thing' can no longer go unchallenged," they said.

The opinion appears as an editorial in the latest edition of the British Medical Journal in response to a study that appears in the same edition.

Source-ANI
ARU