Feb. 7, 2003 -- Injections of a progesterone-like hormone durin
Feb. 7, 2003 -- Injections of a progesterone-like hormone during pregnancy may help prevent up to a third of premature births in women with a history of pre-term deliveries, according to a new study. Researchers say it's the first well-documented treatment shown to reduce premature births in women at risk.
"The evidence of this treatment's effectiveness was so dramatic, the research was stopped early," says researcher Paul J. Meis, MD, of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, in a news release. Meis presented the results of the study this week at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in San Francisco.
The study found that the hormone, called 17-alpha-hydroxprogesterone caproate or 17P, reduced the risk of giving birth before the 37th week of pregnancy by 34%. The drug also reduced the risk of extremely premature births before the 32nd week of pregnancy by 42%. A full-term pregnancy is 40 weeks, and babies are considered premature if they are born prior to 37 weeks.
Babies who are born too soon are a growing health issue in the U.S. Since the early 1980s, the rate of early deliveries has risen by 23%, and today approximately 11% of all births -- or 450,000 each year -- occur early. Researchers don't know exactly what causes labor to begin early, but women in their teens or over 35 and those have a history of premature delivery are thought to be at increased risk.
Preemies often suffer from serious medical problems after birth due to inadequately developed lungs and other organs and may also be at increased risk for a variety of health and developmental disorders later in life.
In the study, researchers looked at the effects of given a weekly injection of 17P beginning at 16 to 20 weeks into the pregnancy and ending at week 36 to 463 women with a history of premature birth. Two-thirds of the women received the drug and the others received a placebo.
The study showed that the drug worked equally well in preventing premature births in African-American and non-African-American women. African-American women have about twice the rate of premature births as other women.
Researchers originally planned to enroll 500 women, but stopped enrollment early due to the dramatic results found. Previous studies had suggested 17P might protect against premature births, but this was the first large study to look at the drug's effectiveness.
"This drug is readily available and can be used by doctors to improve outcomes for mothers and babies," says Meis.
SOURCE: Annual Meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, San Francisco, Calif., Feb. 6, 2003 ? News release, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center ? WebMD Feature: "More and More Babies Born Too Soon."
