New Evidence Available
Updated Recommendation
A new evidence synthesis was published:2022, WHO recommendations on antenatal corticosteroids for improving preterm birth outcomes.
View latest version (2022)Bibliographic Info
GuidelineWHO recommendations on interventions to improve preterm birth outcomes
Year of Publication2015
Issuing InstitutionWorld Health Organization
Recommendation
Status
Retired
Recommended in favor
Strong
Certainty of evidence
Low
For eligible women, antenatal corticosteroid should be administered when preterm birth is considered imminent within 7 days of starting treatment, including within the first 24 hours
Notes and Remarks
- 1.Antenatal corticosteroid therapy should be started even when the completion of a full course before preterm birth is uncertain.
- 2.Tocolysis may be considered as an intervention to gain time to complete a single course of antenatal corticosteroids
- 3.The GDG acknowledged the limitations and potential bias of evidence derived from the subgroup analyses according to interval between steroid administration and preterm birth, which led to rating of the quality of evidence as “low”. Nevertheless, the group made a strong recommendation on the basis of the balance being in favour of the benefits of antenatal corticosteroids (in terms of reducing respiratory morbidity and mortality for babies born within 24 hours and up to 7 days of starting treatment), the low resource requirements, and the feasibility of implementing the intervention.