Therapies administered to mothers at risk for preterm birth and neurodevelopmental outcome in their infants.

A decrease in the rate of preterm births and the prevention of prematurity-associated neurodevelopmental morbidity are critical for the reduction of neurodevelopmental disability. Efforts to reduce the overall preterm delivery rate have been unsuccessful. Although progress has been achieved in the prevention of short-term neonatal morbidity over the past several decades, the majority of the improvements have resulted from improved neonatal care. Whether obstetric interventions can improve neurodevelopmental outcome is unknown. The ability to adequately assess obstetric interventions is hampered by the limited number of interventional studies that included long-term outcome assessment. Thus, it is incumbent upon ongoing and future interventional studies to consider long-term outcome assessment as a critical component of the overall evaluation of efficacy of obstetric therapies.