Study: Epsom Salt can cut Cerebral palsy in Premature Babies

Giving Epsom Salt to a woman who has gone into premature labor can help protect her baby from cerebral palsy, suggests a study presented Thursday. Epsom salt, which is actually the common name of Magnesium Sulfate, reduces the risk of cerebral palsy in premature babies to nearly half.

Cerebral palsy is an often disturbing movement disorder caused by brain damage before, during or after birth and is common in babies who have early preterm birth. About one-third of cerebral palsy cases are caused by early preterm birth, said Dr. John Thorp, a professor of obstetrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Children, who have cerebral palsy, are mostly born with it. Parts of brain that control muscle movements, in such children are damaged. The signs are usually apparent in small children before three years of age and most commonly a lack of muscle coordination when performing voluntary movements (ataxia) is seen.

"We have a cheap, widely available treatment already in hand that cuts in half the risk of babies being born with an extremely disabling disorder," Thorp said in a statement. "And virtually every delivery room in the United States is already stocked with magnesium sulfate solutions that are given to pregnant women during childbirth for other reasons."

According to the United Cerebral Palsy, in 1,000 children over the age of 3, about 2 or 3 are diagnosed with cerebral palsy every year in the U.S.

The study, which was conducted by Dr. Dwight J. Rouse of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, involved 2,241 women who were at high risk for giving birth prematurely, between 24 and 31 weeks into their pregnancies. They were given an intravenous infusion of magnesium sulfate solution or an identically appearing placebo, which was administered when it seemed that the delivery is to happen.

In case, the delivery did not occur within 12 hours, the infusion was stopped and resumed later.

Cerebral palsy was found to occur 2 percent of those in the treatment group compared to about 4 percent of those whose mothers didn't get the compound.

"This is a real breakthrough," says Thorp, noting that his study reinforces the findings of a 2003 Australian study. "These are children who have their whole lives in front of them."

Dr. Alan Fleischman, medical director of the birth defect charity March of Dimes agreed there was hardly any danger to using magnesium sulfate, if done properly. "Obstetricians are comfortable with it and they use it frequently," he said.