Progesterone Vaginal Pessary for Prevention of Preterm Twin Birth
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2017-01-15
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Multiple pregnancies accounted for 1 - 6 % of all births in UK during 2007. More than 98% of
these multiple births being twin births . Preterm birth defined as birth occurring prior to
37 weeks of gestation and it was about 15 % of pregnancies in developed world and 12.7 % in
the United States.
Preterm birth is the leading cause of infant and neonatal mortality. Premature neonates are
at increased risk of developing respiratory distress syndrome, sepsis, intraventricular
hemorrhage, and necrotizing enterocolitis.
Twin pregnancy is considered one of the important risk factors of preterm birth. Over
distension of uterus may be one of the etiological factors for preterm birth. However, no
definite effective interventions have been shown to prevent preterm delivery in twin
pregnancy.
Three large randomized trials suggested that progesterone might prevent preterm delivery in
high-risk singleton pregnancy especially those with previous preterm delivery or short cervix
might be reduced by antenatal progesterone.
Fonseca et al (2007) concluded that women with short cervix are less likely to deliver
preterm ≤34 weeks if they are treated with vaginal progesterone.