To prevent premature births, adequate control of pregnancy is recommended and be alert to possible alarm signals. Each day that the baby passes into the mother's womb is a very valuable time, so any precaution is little.
In that sense, the University Clinic of Navarra has just announced that it will incorporate in its usual protocol for pregnancy control the length of the cervix as an indicator of risk of premature delivery in all patients, both those who present a risky pregnancy and those who do not.
In this way, they intend to prevent preterm births because, following an international study, it has been proven that in pregnant women with a short cervix detected in mid-pregnancy, vaginal progesterone treatment has significantly reduced the chances of a premature delivery.
The international work entitled 'Pregnant trial' is a randomized study in which two groups of women with early shortening of the cervix were compared and evaluated by systematic ultrasound. One of the two pregnant groups was treated with progesterone and the other was not.
They found that those women who had a short cervix in mid-pregnancy and were treated with progesterone reduced the probability of having a birth before the 35th week of gestation by 40 to 50 percent.
In light of these solid results, the University Clinic of Navarra has decided to perform cervical measurement by ultrasound between weeks 20 and 23 of pregnancy. An effective and accessible measure that can help reduce the number of premature births.
