Treatment with the Hormone Progesterone in High-Risk Pregnant Women Cuts Preterm Births By Half

The risk of preterm labor and delivery poses one of the largest threats to prenatal life today — more than one in 10 babies are born before they should be, and some are very early, in the US alone each year. Thanks to medical innovations, more and more of these babies have a chance at life. Preventing preterm labor would be the best outcome, however, and one study sheds light on how this could be done.

Progesterone Reduces the Risk of Delivery before 33rd Week of Pregnancy by Half

Babies who are born preterm always run the risk of an early death. Even if they are born safely, these small and underdeveloped infants face a multitude of long term health and psychological problems. They may suffer from cerebral palsy, breathing difficulties, blindness, and deafness and learning difficulties, among many other complications. In the US alone, about 12.8 percent of the babies born in 2008 were preterm.
 

What can be done to reduce the odds of these challenging outcomes?

One study conducted by Columbia Laboratories Inc and Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc, and published in the journal Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology, claims that the use of progesterone gel can reduce the risk of delivering before the 33rd week of pregnancy by half.

Known by the brand name Prochieve, this progesterone gel gives hope to many women with a short cervix. They may have suffered repeated miscarriages and preterm labors, but with this innovation, they have renewed hope of carrying their pregnancy till full term. According to Dr. Roberto Romero, chief of the Perinatology Research Branch of the National Institutes of Health, it would be easier to reduce the incidence of preterm labor by identifying the women with a short cervix, who are more likely to give birth to preterm babies, and treat them with the hormonal gel.

The study was conducted on 458 women with a short cervix from 44 medical centers around the world. These women were given the progesterone gel or a placebo to be used between the 19th and 23rd week of pregnancy. It was found that only 8.9 percent of the women who got the gel delivered before the 33rd week of pregnancy as compared to 16.1 percent of the women who got the placebo.

A Short Cervix is Associated with Increased Risk of Preterm Labor

A normal pregnancy lasts from 38 to 40 weeks and gives the baby an optimal chance to fully develop in a healthy manner. Any pregnancy that lasts between 22 and 37 weeks is said to be preterm and the babies born thus often face many health issues after birth. The chances of preterm labor increase in women who have had similar deliveries in the past. The risk increases if the women are bearing multiple babies at the same time, like twins or triplets. Preterm labor can also occur if the women have abnormalities of the birth tract, like a short cervix.

The cervix is the part of the birth canal which opens and shortens during labor. It has been known for a long time that a short cervix is associated with increased risk of suffering a preterm labor.

Researchers taking part in the above study have hypothesized that the women with a short cervix may be lacking in the important female hormone progesterone and the latter’s supplementation during pregnancy in a gel form may be helpful in prolonging the pregnancy, thereby helping these babies stay in the uterus until it is safe for them to emerge into the world.

Apart from helping women with a short cervix, progesterone also helps in preventing preterm labor due to a premature rupture of membranes (more commonly known as waters breaking). Progesterone supplementation protects the fetal membranes from weakening and prevents their premature rupture.

Read More: Stress Harms the Development of Premature Babies

Progesterone supplementation in vulnerable pregnant women has also been found to be useful in preventing fetal distress in preterm babies. Only three percent of the babies who were born to the women taking part in the study, who received progesterone gel, had respiratory distress syndrome. Meanwhile, 7.6 percent of babies born to women who had received a placebo developed respiratory problems after birth.

The makers of Prochieve may, therefore, potentially save countless lives.