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Prenatal care essential to decrease risk of preterm birth

Physician Practice Advisor, February 15, 2005

Progesterone therapy given to pregnant women with a history of preterm birth could reduce the national preterm birth rate by approximately 2% (or about 10,000 births) annually, according to a study by the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the March of Dimes, published in the February issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

To date, there are no widely established treatments to prevent preterm birth. However, studies show that administering progesterone (17 alpha-hydroxyprogesterone caproate or '17P') weekly beginning between 16 and 20 weeks of gestation to women with a history of preterm birth reduces the chance of preterm births in subsequent pregnancies by as much as 33%.

CDC researchers estimated that in the United States in 2002, approximately 30,000 women who would've been eligible for the injection (i.e., they had a history of preterm birth, were carrying a single fetus, and received prenatal care within the first four months of pregnancy) had recurrent preterm births. A third of these preterm births could have been prevented if these women had received 17P; nearly 133,000 currently pregnant women may be eligible for the treatment, according to researchers. This number may be higher if more women receive prenatal care in the first trimester.

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