bekahandjosh

Why not give the steroid shot for lung development to all twin pregnancies?

My wife and I had a due date of 4/21 for our b/g twins. They moved us 4/8 since they don’t want twins going 40 weeks.

The doctor mentioned several times that we could do a steroid shot if preeclampsia symptoms appeared. This would help our twins’ lungs develop.

We ended up having preeclampsia set in and delivering on 3/13 (~6 weeks early). It was a relatively easy 20 days in the NICU (which I say because another set of twins born that day was life-flighted elsewhere). They’re home happy and healthy.

The only reason that we got the steroid shot is because we happened to come to the doctor’s on 3/11. One test was a bit high, so we pushed for the steroid shot just in case. We got the first dose that afternoon. It needs two doses and 48 hours to be effective. Early the next morning (3/12), we went to the hospital in labor. They gave us dose two that morning. Then, our twins are born after 24 (long) hours of laboring at the hospital.

We’ve been of two happy and sleep-deprived minds since. On the one hand, is there a chance that the steroid shot worsened preeclampsia? On the other, holding the early labor start constant, surely it would have been better to get the steroid sooner than we did?

So, why not just do the steroid shot for all twin pregnancies?

Twins tend to be small and come early. It seems like an excellent place to have a steroid shot planned for twin mothers. Just like mothers receive maternal vaccinations, they’d receive a steroid shot to help the twins. Or, mothers with signs of preeclampsia could have it. We had high blood pressure throughout our pregnancy, for example. But maybe there are risks we weren’t aware of then?

I’m looking forward to reading The Unexpected–we had plenty of unexpected events in our pregnancy. Your other books helped handle those uncertainties and make our own educated calls.