Tag Archives: pessary

A recently published study indicates that medical devices called pessaries could prevent premature birth, which puts babies at a higher risk of developing conditions like cerebral palsy. Doctors studied 385 pregnant women with short cervixes at five Spanish hospitals. Statistically, women with short cervixes are more likely to go into early labor. Nearly half (192) of the women were treated with the cervical pessary. Overall, fewer women in the pessary group went into premature labor than did women in the non-pessary group (12 in the former, 52 in the latter). Percentagewise, six percent of the pessary group went into early labor, compared to 26 percent of the non-pessary group. The babies born in the non-pessary group had higher rates of low birth weight and respiratory distress syndrome. Some women in the pessary group indicated that the device was painful. On average, the insertion of the device was a four and…
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