The incompetent cervix and accelerated fetal lung maturation.

The incompetent cervix is an infrequent but identifiable cause of late midtrimester pregnancy loss. The early diagnosis and surgical treatment of these patients have resulted in successful outcomes in 70 to 80 per cent of patients treated. However, this closure of the cervix may be only partially successful, in that the pregnancy may continue beyond the age of fetal viability, but the fetus may be born prematurely. There are no reports in the literature of the neonatal respiratory status of these infants delivered between 24 and 33 weeks of gestation. Nineteen preterm infants of less than 3-4 weeks' gestation were born to mothers with an incompetent cervix. The incidence of the respiratory distress syndrome was significantly less in infants of mothers with an incompetent cervix than in control infants of similar gestation (p less than 0.001). The incomplete cervix appears to be related to maternal or fetal conditions which result in accelerated fetal lung maturation.