Why steroids for fetal lung maturity ( ico HELLP Syndrome), and Intra Uterine Transfusion (in Rh isoimmunization) is given before doing TOP? I mean, why can’t pregnancy be directly terminated? I’m not able to grasp this concept. Please help.
Hello,
Because we usually terminate preganancies asso. with the above mentioned conditions a little earlier than normal, which in turn means that the fetal lung wouldn’t be at its optimum for the outside world.
This optimization is achieved by giving steroids and hastening the fetal lung maturity (surfactant), such as making the lung surfactant level in 32/33 week fetus to that of 35/36 week without actually waiting for the extra few weeks.