{"id":55927,"date":"2022-10-11T17:53:47","date_gmt":"2022-10-11T21:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/?post_type=resource&p=55927"},"modified":"2022-10-11T17:53:47","modified_gmt":"2022-10-11T21:53:47","slug":"who-antenatal-corticosteroids","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/resource\/who-antenatal-corticosteroids\/","title":{"rendered":"WHO recommendations on antenatal corticosteroids for improving preterm birth outcomes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Complications of preterm birth are the single largest cause of newborn deaths and deaths among children under the age of five years. Preterm babies who survive are more prone to serious illnesses during childhood. Global efforts to reduce newborn and child morbidity and mortality demand urgent action to address preterm birth. In 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) convened the Executive Guideline Steering Group (GSG) for maternal and perinatal health recommendations, which prioritized updating WHO recommendations on the use of antenatal corticosteroid therapy<\/a> to improve preterm birth outcomes. This decision was based on the availability of new evidence on the efficacy of antenatal corticosteroid therapy. The recommendations in this document thus supersede the antenatal corticosteroid recommendations in the WHO recommendations on interventions to improve preterm birth outcomes<\/a> published in 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Complications of preterm birth are the single largest cause of newborn deaths and deaths among children under the age of five years. Preterm babies who survive are more prone to serious illnesses during childhood. Global efforts to reduce newborn and child morbidity and mortality demand urgent action to address preterm birth. In 2021, the World … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7211,"featured_media":55929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","toolkit":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHealthy Newborn Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) prioritized updating the then current recommendations on the use of antenatal corticosteroids as published in the WHO recommendations on interventions to improve preterm birth outcomes.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/resource\/who-antenatal-corticosteroids\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WHO recommendations on antenatal corticosteroids for improving preterm birth outcomes - Healthy Newborn Network\" 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outcomes.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/resource\/who-antenatal-corticosteroids\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/resource\/who-antenatal-corticosteroids\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/resource\/who-antenatal-corticosteroids\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/hnn-content\/uploads\/HPR-ACS.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/hnn-content\/uploads\/HPR-ACS.png","width":603,"height":855,"caption":"WHO recommendations on antenatal corticosteroids for improving preterm birth outcomes"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/resource\/who-antenatal-corticosteroids\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"WHO recommendations on antenatal corticosteroids for improving preterm birth outcomes"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/","name":"Healthy Newborn Network","description":"Addressing critical knowledge gaps in newborn health.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"featured_image":"<img width=\"603\" height=\"855\" src=\"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/hnn-content\/uploads\/HPR-ACS.png\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"WHO recommendations on antenatal corticosteroids for improving preterm birth outcomes\" decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/hnn-content\/uploads\/HPR-ACS.png 603w, https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/hnn-content\/uploads\/HPR-ACS-212x300.png 212w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 603px) 100vw, 603px\" \/>","author_name":"HNN Team","author_image":"<img src=\"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/hnn-content\/themes\/hnn\/dist\/images\/member-default.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"avatar avatar-32 photo\" height=\"32\" width=\"32\"\/>","acf_custom_fields":{"publication_date":"20220929","ft_img_caption":"","authors":false,"additional_authors":"World Health Organization","type":"tools_guidelines","language":[],"external_links":[{"link":""}],"files":[{"file":"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/hnn-content\/uploads\/WHO-2022-ACS-Guidelines.pdf"}],"partners":[],"other_organizations":"World Health Organization","issues":[{"ID":318,"post_author":"7211","post_date":"2016-01-12 17:48:53","post_date_gmt":"2016-01-12 17:48:53","post_content":"[vc_row full_width=\"stretch_row\" css=\".vc_custom_1453403441710{margin-top: -60px !important;padding-top: 30px !important;padding-bottom: 30px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;}\"][vc_column width=\"1\/2\"][vc_column_text]\r\n<h2>Administering antenatal corticosteroids (ACS) to mothers at risk of premature birth accelerates fetal lung development and reduces risk of infant respiratory distress syndrome, one of the most common life-threatening complications of prematurity. In addition, ACS administration decreases the risk of brain hemorrhage and serious prematurity complications such as necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a life-threatening intestinal infection.<\/h2>\r\nIn high-resource countries, the standard of care for more than two decades has been administration of ACS in cases where a woman is imminently likely to deliver prematurely (less than 34 weeks gestation). ACS use in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) has been a slower process, in part due to limited evidence regarding safe and effective ACS administration. In many LMIC settings, accurate gestational age assessment is often lacking, as is the quality perinatal care required to prevent and manage preterm complications. Recent research evidence from a multi-country randomized controlled trial <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nejm.org\/doi\/full\/10.1056\/NEJMoa2022398#:~:text=The%20use%20of%20antenatal%20dexamethasone,any%20evidence%20of%20harm%20to\">(ACTION)<\/a> demonstrated significant reductions of neonatal deaths and stillbirths, showing the benefit of ACS in LMICs.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=\"1\/2\" el_class=\"issue-stats\"][vc_row_inner content_placement=\"middle\"][vc_column_inner el_class=\"text-red\" width=\"1\/3\"][vc_column_text]\r\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span class=\"ticker\">36<\/span><\/strong><\/h1>\r\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=\"2\/3\"][vc_column_text css=\".vc_custom_1666023688979{padding-top: 10px !important;padding-bottom: 10px !important;}\"]\r\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Percent of neonatal deaths due to preterm birth complications globally (2019)<\/span><\/h3>\r\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_separator][vc_row_inner content_placement=\"middle\"][vc_column_inner el_class=\"text-yellow\" width=\"1\/3\"][vc_column_text]\r\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span class=\"ticker\">10.6<\/span><\/strong><\/h1>\r\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=\"2\/3\"][vc_column_text css=\".vc_custom_1666023701465{padding-top: 10px !important;padding-bottom: 10px !important;}\"]\r\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The rate of preterm births globally (2014)<\/span><\/h3>\r\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_separator][vc_row_inner content_placement=\"middle\"][vc_column_inner el_class=\"text-blue\" width=\"1\/3\"][vc_column_text]\r\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span class=\"ticker\">1972<\/span><\/strong><\/h1>\r\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=\"2\/3\"][vc_column_text css=\".vc_custom_1666023713023{padding-top: 10px !important;padding-bottom: 10px !important;}\"]\r\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The year that antenatal corticosteriods (ACS) were first used to accelerate fetal lung maturation in threatened preterm birth<\/span><\/h3>\r\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_separator][vc_column_text]\r\n<h6 style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>All data on this page represents the most recent data available. Please visit our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/numbers\/\">Newborn Numbers<\/a> page and download the Excel spreadsheet to explore the data further.<\/em><\/h6>\r\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=\"stretch_row\" css=\".vc_custom_1452696349804{margin-top: 30px !important;margin-bottom: 30px !important;background-color: #f6f6f4 !important;}\"][vc_column][vc_text_separator title=\"Current Guidance\" color=\"custom\" accent_color=\"#cccccc\"][vc_row_inner equal_height=\"yes\"][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]WHO is currently updating global ACS recommendations based on systematic review of evidence, including the ACTION trial. Until the guidelines are updated, ACS therapy should continue to be used only when certain conditions can be met: when gestational age can be accurately determined, when preterm birth is considered imminent, when there is no evidence of maternal infection, and when adequate newborn and delivery care is available, including care for complications, infection management, feeding support, thermal care, and access to respiratory support. For now, ACS therapy may be safely and effectively administered in LMICs when these conditions can be met. Dexamethasone is the most commonly available antenatal corticosteroid in LMICs. WHO currently includes dexamethasone in its <a href=\"http:\/\/www.who.int\/medicines\/publications\/essentialmedicines\/en\/\">Model List of Essential Medicines<\/a>, and it is included on the Essential Medicines lists of many countries worldwide.\r\n\r\nIt is crucial that health systems and providers prioritize proper training and quality of care to increase survival and health outcomes for preterm newborns and their mothers, and this quality care includes appropriate use of ACS for threatened imminent preterm delivery; for more information, see the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/issue\/preterm-birth-complications\/\">preterm birth complications page<\/a>.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_text_separator title=\"Key Resources\"][vc_column_text]\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/resource\/who-antenatal-corticosteroids\/\">WHO recommendations on antenatal corticosteroids for improving preterm birth outcomes. (2022)<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cochranelibrary.com\/cdsr\/doi\/10.1002\/14651858.CD004454.pub3\/abstract\">Antenatal corticosteroids for accelerating fetal lung maturation for women at risk of preterm birth. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. (2017)<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s12519-020-00398-6\">Reducing neonatal mortality and respiratory distress syndrome associated with preterm birth: a scoping review on the impact of antenatal corticosteroids in low- and middle-income countries (2021)<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nejm.org\/doi\/full\/10.1056\/NEJMoa2022398#:~:text=The%20use%20of%20antenatal%20dexamethasone,any%20evidence%20of%20harm%20to\">Antenatal Dexamethasone for Early Preterm Birth in Low-Resource Countries (2020)<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Qqp1-BN_t4Y\">Video \u2013 Can antenatal corticosteroids prevent preterm infant death and morbidity in low-resource settings? (2022)<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/news\/item\/23-10-2020-steroids-boost-survival-of-preterm-babies-in-low-resource-settings-new-study-finds\">Steroids boost survival of preterm babies in low-resource settings, new study finds (2020)<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","post_title":"Antenatal corticosteroids","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"antenatal-corticosteroids","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2022-10-18 15:36:11","post_modified_gmt":"2022-10-18 19:36:11","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/?post_type=issue&p=318","menu_order":0,"post_type":"issue","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"regions":[],"countries":[],"views":"417"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource\/55927"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/resource"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7211"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource\/55927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"toolkit","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthynewbornnetwork.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/toolkit?post=55927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}