According to a study conducted by Dr. Ronald Wapner, Director of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at New York City’s Columbia University, a judiciously administered dosage of steroids can be given to women at risk for preterm labor.

The study, which was supported by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, advocated that careful information must be readily provided to the concerned families so that they understand the pros and cons of associated benefits & risks related to steroids.

From Bio-Medicine.Org:

“In our study, the babies with the highest number of repeated steroid injections — five or more — we found a non-significant but an increased risk of possible cerebral palsy,” said Dr. Ronald Wapner, director of maternal-fetal medicine at Columbia University in New York City.

That doesn’t mean women should forgo corticosteroid injections if they’re at risk for preterm labor, but repeated doses should be used judiciously, Wapner advised.

“One of the major advances in the health of the preterm neonate has come from giving the mother an injection of steroids to accelerate the maturation of the baby’s lungs,” he said. “But, the effects of that shot don’t last forever. The best guess is probably about seven days.”

Because the benefits of the shot don’t appear to last more than a week, many obstetricians started giving women at risk of delivering early repeated injections each week until they delivered. “It became a trend in this country, and women get course after course of steroids,” Wapner said.

But, he added, no one knew for sure what the exact benefits and hazards of those repeated doses might be.

It was also stated in the study that expecting mothers can be given injections of steroids to accelerate the maturation of baby’s lungs. The usage, however, does not have prolonged effect and may last only a week or so.

Dr. Wapner was of the view that babies administered with repeated doses of steroids require less mechanical ventilation and display signs of reducing incidences of lung problems.