Antenatal Steroids For Late Preterm Pregnancies

Antenatal corticosteroids have been widely used in practice for pregnancies at risk for early preterm delivery. Historically, their use has been confined to pregnancies at less than 34 weeks gestation due to lack of data to support use beyond 34 weeks, as well as neonatal survival of late preterm infants closely approaching the survival of term infants. The late preterm period is defined as 34 weeks 0 days, through 36 week 6 days; with 8% of all deliveries occurring during this time period. More recent literature has demonstrated that while overall survival in the late preterm period is within 1% of survival of term neonates, there are increased morbidities and long term complications of late preterm infants.