Antibiotics given for early labor linked to CP

From Bloomberg News:

Antibiotics given to prevent premature labor in pregnant women adds to the risk of cerebral palsy in their children, U.K. researchers said.

The drugs shouldn't be given to women who show signs of premature labor unless there is clear evidence of an infection, the researchers said in a study being published in this week's Lancet. The scientists studied children at age 7 who were born to 4,221 women who delivered early and were given antibiotics while their waters remained intact.

Cerebral palsy is a neurological disorder that affects muscle tone and hampers movement and posture. While premature birth alone raises the overall risk of cerebral palsy, about 4.6 percent of children born to women who received both antibiotics developed the condition, compared with 1.6 percent who received a placebo.

The findings "support the opinion that antibiotics are not advisable in spontaneous preterm labor without clinical signs of infection," the researchers, including Sara Kenyon at the University of Leicester, said in the report.

In the study, the women were given either erythromycin, co- amoxiclav, a placebo, or both antibiotics. None of the participants had an obvious infection.

The findings don't mean antibiotics are unsafe during pregnancy, the researchers said. "Where there is obvious infection, antibiotics can be life-saving for both mother and baby," they said.

Women in the U.K. aren't routinely prescribed antibiotics if their water hasn't broken, nor are the drugs recommended for women undergoing preterm labor in the U.S.

In the group that received erythromycin, 42 percent of children had mild difficulties, including walking, or trouble with problem-solving compared with 38 percent of those who didn't. Erythromycin is an antibiotic obtained from a strain of pathogenic organisms that is effective against different types of bacteria.