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A pregnant lady. (Photo:Courtesy)
By Mirror
UK: A few weeks ago, I spoke at a conference to launch the London Maternity Strategic Network, quite a mouthful, run by the NHS to promote networking among midwives, doctors and carers to improve maternity care.
In among the learned presentations was mention of a little nugget of gold which can help pregnant women all over the UK.
It’s a very simple test which will tell a woman who’s at high risk of delivering a premature baby whether she has to go to hospital or is safe to simply stay resting at home.
This can be a crucial decision because half of such women go on to deliver their baby at term.
Naturally, everyone wants to avoid unnecessary hospital admissions and the use of powerful drugs.
The test is for foetal fibronectin (fFN) a protein which is detectable in a woman’s cervical fluid all the way through pregnancy.
Between 22 and 35 weeks of pregnancy, foetal fibronectin levels of 50ng/ml or under are indicative of a low risk of preterm delivery.
Using the 50ng/ml cut-off point, the fFN test will accurately predict that a preterm delivery isn’t a risk in 99 women out of 100.
It also shows when a woman with symptoms suggesting a preterm delivery has a better than four in 10 chance of going into labour in the next 14 days.
The fFN test can bring further reassurance to a worried woman because the risk of having a prem baby is at its lowest when fFN levels are less than 10ng/ml.
The highest risk of preterm delivery is seen with fFN levels of greater than 200ng/ml.
For pregnant women, the most useful aspect of this test is that a negative fFN makes it highly unlikely that her symptoms of preterm labour will lead to delivery of a prem baby in the next couple of weeks, bringing her peace of mind and the space to plan.
Her anxiety is relieved.
What I like about this test is that it puts women in control because they avoid a ride in an ambulance to an unfamiliar unit, unnecessary hospital admission, and feel reassured.
They also avoid the hassle of interventions that include admission to hospital for monitoring, administration of steroids and other drugs and possible transfer to a specialist unit which can care for a baby born at the extremes of viability.
And all this is from a cheap and simple test that should be available to everyone.
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