A drip before a very early birth lowers the baby's cerebral palsy risk
Magnesium sulphate given to the mother shortly before a very preterm delivery reduced cerebral palsy and improved gross motor function in the child. How far the risk falls is not settled.
What the study found
A magnesium sulphate drip cuts cerebral palsy risk in very early birth
The hospital drip, not the capsule. Magnesium sulphate goes to the mother, shortly before a very early delivery, and the benefit shows up in the child: less cerebral palsy, the lifelong movement disorder caused by brain injury around the time of birth, and better gross motor function.
The caveat · Direction shown, size unsettled
The reviewed trials establish the direction but not the size; how far the risk falls is not settled here. This is a different job from preventing a mother's seizures, working a different way, and the two should not be read as one use. And it applies to births that are very preterm, not to pregnancy generally.