Prenatal Steroids and Preterm Birth: You Only Need One Course

Although use of prenatal steroids during preterm labor has reduced infant neonatal mortality and morbidity, controversy exists regarding the benefit of additional doses should the mother not deliver within 2 weeks after the initial treatment. In addition, multiple doses of prenatal steroids might adversely affect fetal growth and postnatal development. In an international study, researchers compared the effects of single and multiple doses of prenatal steroid treatment on outcomes of infants born to 1853 pregnant women who were between 25 and 32 weeks’ gestation and who remained at risk for preterm delivery after receipt of one course of antenatal steroids. The women were randomized to receive two doses, 24 hours apart, of betamethasone (12…