We would like to avoid preterm delivery because of serious complications to the baby that includes cerebral palsy, mental retardation, lung disease, hearing loss and blindness.

Treatment with high-dose progesterone can help at-risk pregnant women from premature delivery.

Such were the findings presented at the 27th Annual Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) meeting.

According to Fabio Facchinetti, M.D., of the Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia (Modena, Italy,) lead study author and SMFM member:

"Our purpose was to determine if a higher dose of alpha-hydroxy- progesterone caproate (17P), commonly used to prevent preterm birth among women with that history, can affect cervical changes and increase preventive effectiveness in women during their first pregnancy.

Our finding was that 22 percent of the women in the treatment group had a preterm delivery, compared to 54 percent in the observation group. We believe this was the result of reduced cervical shortening and inhibited local inflammation."

The said study is the first to establish a relationship between progesterone, cervical changes, and preterm deliveries.

Find more details from the press release.