A simple pessary can play a key role in preventing premature birth in some high-risk pregnant women, researchers say today.
Spanish researchers found the device, costing just a few pence, reduced the rate of premature birth by 75 per cent.
The device was inserted about half way through pregnancy in the research involving nearly 15,000 pregnant women in Barcelona.
Doctors identified some 380 women at high risk of premature birth because of having a short cervix. Half received the pessary and half did not.
The research showed that six per cent of those who received the pessary ended up giving birth before 34 weeks of pregnancy. This compared with 27 per cent of those who did not receive the device.
Researcher Elena Carreras, from the Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron, Barcelona, said: "Finding a safe, economical way (38 euros per pessary) of reducing the incidence of pre-term birth in the world and reducing the burden of prematurity and its sequelae is a worthwhile goal.
"Our results open the door to further research into the use of this device and give us hope of finding a way to substantially reduce the incidence of prematurity and its consequences worldwide."
Writing in the journal, Steve Caritis and Hyagriv Simhan from Magee Women’s Hospital, Pittsburgh, USA, say the findings raise "novel and exciting" possibilities as well as new areas for investigation about the risks of pregnancy.
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