LOS ANGELES, Feb 10: A dramatic increase in the number of premature babies might be brought under control if high-risk pregnant women received injections of a readily available hormone, according to new research.

Injections of a synthetic form of the naturally occurring hormone progesterone were shown to prevent more than a third of pre-term births in women with a history of giving birth early, according to a study presented in San Francisco on Thursday at a meeting of the Society of Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

“This is the biggest problem in obstetrics right now ... these results show there is hope that we can reduce the number of pre-term babies born to high-risk women,” said Dr. Paul Meis, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and the study’s lead investigator.

Citing a 27 per cent rise over the past 20 years in the number of babies born prematurely in the United States, the March of Dimes last week launched a $75-million campaign to raise public awareness of the problem.

“One in eight babies are born prematurely ... that’s not a statistic to be proud of,” said Dr. Nancy Green, associate professor of paediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City and the March of Dimes’ medical director.

Babies born too early can have serious health problems such as cerebral palsy and mental retardation. Prematurity has also been identified as the leading cause of newborn death.

Green said she is “cautiously optimistic” about results from the National Institutes of Health-sponsored Wake Forest study, which has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

“Prematurity remains one of the greatest conundrums for modern obstetrics ... the loss of life and loss of quality of life can be devastating,” said Dr. Steven Goldstein of the New York University Medical Center.—Reuters