A recent study by the National Institute of Health has revealed that
prenatal steroids seem to improve survival rates and limit brain
injuries in infants born as early as the 23rd week of pregnancy. Now,
guidelines suggest giving prenatal steroids to women at risk of a
premature delivery between the 24th and 34th weeks of pregnancy.

Infants born this early are small, frail, and often too weak to
survive. Those who are receptive to a hospital’s prenatal care can
sometimes grow to adulthood with minimal affects, but most newborns in
such situations will develop with a permanent disability such as minor
hearing loss, cerebral palsy and intellectual disability. New research
has revealed that prenatally-administered steroid hormones can
strengthen and support the development of a fetus’s lungs en utero.
The increased lung development helps the infant significantly during
and immediately after birth, improving its chances for survival and
possibly minimizing brain injuries.

According to study author Rosemary D. Higgins M.D., the research
findings “provide strong evidence that prenatal steroids can benefit
infants born as early as they 23rd week of pregnancy.”

The study was conducted by researchers of the NICHID Neonatal Research
Network, under the guidance of Waldemar A. Carlo, the director of the
Division of Neonatology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
The study participants analyzed medical records of 10,541 premature
infants from network hospitals during the years 1993 through 2009.
They also performed neurological exams on the 4,924 surviving infants
born during those years, 18 to 22 months following each of the
infants’ original due dates. All of the infants included in the study
were born in the 22nd through 25th weeks of pregnancy.

The research revealed that there was a 33% lower death rate of infants
born to women who received prenatal steroids compared with those who
did not. In fact, not only were there fewer deaths, but among the
surviving infants the rates of blindness, hearing impairment, cerebral
palsy and motor and cognitive development were more than 20% lower
than in cases where the mother was not treated with steroids.