Treatment to Delay Labor Lowers Cerebral Palsy Risk

(August 28, 2008) - A treatment to stop premature labor (Read about "Childbirth") may not always work but it does seem to help lower the risk of an infant developing cerebral palsy. (Read about "Cerebral Palsy") Preterm infants born to mothers receiving intravenous magnesium sulfate - a common treatment to delay labor - are less likely to develop cerebral palsy than are preterm infants whose mothers do not receive it, report researchers in a large National Institutes of Health.

"A third of all cases of cerebral palsy are associated with preterm birth," said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D. "This study shows a significant reduction in cerebral palsy among preterm infants whose mothers were given magnesium sulfate."

The researchers theorized that magnesium sulfate protects against cerebral palsy because it can stabilize blood vessels, protect against damage from oxygen depletion, and protects against injury from swelling and inflammation.

Cerebral palsy refers to a group of neurological disorders affecting control of movement and posture and which limit activity. The brain may be injured or develop abnormally during pregnancy, birth or in early childhood. The causes of cerebral palsy are not well understood.

Cerebral palsy was diagnosed in 41 children from 942 magnesium sulfate-treated pregnancies, as compared to 74 children from 1,002 placebo-treated pregnancies. Of the children in the magnesium sulfate group, 2.2 percent had cerebral palsy classified as mild, 1.5 percent as moderate, and 0.5 percent as severe. A higher proportion of children in the placebo group than in the magnesium sulfate group had cerebral palsy. Of the children in the placebo group, 3.7 percent had mild cases of cerebral palsy, 2.0 percent had moderate cases, and 1.6 percent had severe cases.