What medication is used to mature baby lungs?

What medication is used to mature baby lungs?

Corticosteroids are anti-inflammation medicines that help the baby’s lungs mature before being born. They are usually given to women at risk of early labour, typically as two injections, though they can also be given before planned preterm birth and in some cases a repeat course can be given.

How do corticosteroids mature fetal lungs?

Antenatal steroids that cross the placenta (i.e., synthetic steroids such as dexamethasone or betamethasone) mature the fetal lung, inducing the enzymes for surfactant synthesis and the genes for the surfactant proteins, increase anti-oxidant activity, and reduce oxidative stress.

When do you give betamethasone for lung maturity?

A single course of betamethasone is recommended for pregnant women between 34 0/7 weeks and 36 6/7 weeks of gestation at risk of preterm birth within 7 days, and who have not received a previous course of antenatal corticosteroids.

What do antenatal corticosteroids do?

Antenatal steroids (dexamethasone or betamethasone) can cross the placenta to mature the fetal lung and brain. In the lung, antenatal steroids can decrease the fetal lung fluid through activation of ENaCs, induce the production of surfactant proteins and lipid synthesis, and alter preterm responses to oxidative stress.

Who is the good candidate for antenatal corticosteroids?

Antenatal corticosteroid therapy is recommended for women with pre-gestational and gestational diabetes who are at risk of imminent preterm birth. Women who are receiving fetal steroids should have additional insulin according to an agreed protocol and be closely monitored.

When should a pregnant woman take corticosteroids?

Corticosteroid therapy in pregnancy is appropriate to control clinically active maternal illness; to treat an in utero infant suffering from neonatal lupus-associated carditis; in stress doses (in corticosteroid-treated patients) for labor and delivery: and, pre-delivery, to induce fetal lung maturation.

When do you repeat antenatal corticosteroids?

A single repeat course of antenatal corticosteroids should be considered in women at less than 34 weeks of gestation who have an imminent risk of preterm delivery within the next 7 days, and whose prior course of antenatal corticosteroids was administered more than 7–14 days previously.