Background: Babies born to mothers with diabetes mellitus have a higher chance of developing respiratory complications and hypoglycemia compared to those born to non-diabetic mothers. It is unclear if the use of antenatal corticosteroids after 37 weeks gestation alters these risks. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of administering Dexamethasone prior to elective early term cesarean delivery on neonatal respiratory morbidity and hypoglycemia in diabetic pregnant women.
Materials and Methods: This retrospective case control study analyzed the effect of antenatal Dexamethasone administration on pregnant women with diabetes who had undergone elective early term cesarean delivery. We focused on measuring the number of admissions to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) due to respiratory morbidity and hypoglycemia as our main outcomes.
Results: We found that Dexamethasone administration prior to elective early term cesarean delivery was associated with an increased incidence of neonatal hypoglycemia (12.3% vs 5.3%, p value = 0.036), but did not significantly impact neonatal respiratory morbidity (9.6% vs 11.2%, p value = 0.479), nor the overall admission to NICU (21.9% vs 16.5%, p value = 0.323).
Conclusion: Administering Dexamethasone to women with diabetes before elective term cesarean delivery may raise the likelihood of their newborns being admitted to neonatal intensive care unit because of hypoglycemia, without showing any substantial improvement in the neonatal respiratory morbidity.