Corticosteroids Every 2 Weeks to Prevent Preterm Birth: No Benefits, Smaller Babies

A single dose of corticosteroids, given for threatened preterm delivery, lowers risk for neonatal mortality, respiratory distress syndrome, and intraventricular hemorrhage. If preterm delivery remains a threat at 1 week or more after initial treatment, some clinicians administer repeat corticosteroid doses. But, trials of weekly corticosteroid doses in this setting have yielded mixed results, and some evidence suggests that multiple doses of corticosteroids diminish fetal growth or have long-term adverse neurologic effects.

Hypothesizing that corticosteroid dosing every 2 weeks might provide substantial respiratory benefits and lead to minimal adverse effects, investigators enrolled 1858 women (at 25 to 32 weeks’ gestation) who were at risk …