The primary audience for this guideline includes health-care professionals who are responsible for developing national and local health-care protocols and policies, as well as managers of maternal and child health programmes and policy-makers in all settings. The guideline will also be useful to those directly providing care to pregnant women and preterm infants, such as obstetricians, paediatricians, midwives, nurses and general practitioners. The information in this guideline will be useful for developing job aids and tools for pre- and in-service training of health workers to enhance their delivery of maternal and neonatal care relating to preterm birth.
The authors comment on WHO’s 2015 recommendations on interventions to improve preterm newborn outcomes including antenatal corticosteroids, tocolytics, magnesium sulfate, antibiotics, and move of delivery. They also discuss care for preterm neonates including thermal care, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), surfactant administration, and oxygen therapy. They stress the importance of health systems and providers reliably assessing gestation age, recognizing signs of preterm labor, provide prompt and effective newborn care, and use interventions to minimize harm. Finally, they acknowledge key evidence gaps as related to antenatal corticosteroids and tocolytics in resource-limited settings.