MEDICINE FOR ALL

An appropriate standard of childbirth care should be available  to the mother in a facility that has a team of health-care providers competent in recognizing  and safely managing preterm labour and imminent preterm birth. Safe care during labour and childbirth requires clode monitoring of the mother and fetus to identify and appropriately manage complication, such as maternal infection and fetal hypoxia

Due to consideration should be given to local limit of gestational age when antenatal steroids should be administered, including reference  to local  data on newborn survival and morbidity. The probability of survival without residual morbidity (“intact survival”) at<24 weeks is low, even in high-resource settings.

Antenatal corticosteroid therapy:

Accurate and standardized gestational age assessment (ideally from first trimester ultrasound) is essential to ensure that all eligible mothers receive corticosteroids while avoiding unnecessary treatment  of ineligible mothers. Antenatal corticosteroid should not be routine administered in situations where the gestational  age cannot be confirmed, particularly  when gestational age is suspected to be more than 34 weeks, as the risk of harm may outweigh the benefits if mature fetuses are exposed to corticosteroid in utero.