Cerebral Palsy Prevention

Here's the latest from the Associated Press and HOI 19:

New research suggests doctors can cut the risk of cerebral palsy in half for very premature babies by giving their mothers magnesium sulfate just before they give birth.

In the government-funded study, researchers gave an infusion of magnesium sulfate to women about to give birth to a premature baby to see if it would reduce the risk of cerebral palsy.
More than 2,200 hundred women who were 24 to 31 weeks pregnant were enrolled in the study. Infants born before 37 weeks are considered premature.

Of the babies who survived, moderate or severe cerebral palsy occurred in about 2 percent of those in the treatment group compared to about 4 percent of those whose mothers didn't get the compound.

The research is being presented at a meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in Dallas.

Med Page Today has more on this study.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen