Antenatal Dexamethasone versus Betamethasone on Maternal and Neonatal Outcomes: A comparative study

Aim

To compare the maternal and neonatal outcomes of antenatal dexamethasone versus betamethasone in women who were at risk of preterm delivery Material and method: The present prospective comparative study was carried out at the department of Gynaecology Department, Khalifa Gulnawaz Teaching Hospital Bannu from March 2025 to August 2025 after taking approval from the ethical committee of the hospital. Pregnant women attending the hospital for their antenatal visit with gestational age 24 -34 weeks with risk of preterm birth were included in this study. The sample size was determined using the WHO sample calculator. The required sample size was 152(at least 76 in each group). The study participants were divided in to A and B. Group A received dexamethasone and Group B received Betamethasone. In both groups these drugs were administrated intramuscularly at: 12 mg every 24 hours for two doses.10 Participants were assessed for neonatal and maternal outcomes. SPSS version 22 was used to analyze the data. Frequencies and percentages were used to express categorical variables. The mean ± standard deviation was used to express continuous variables. The independent-samples t-test was utilized for normally distributed continuous data, while the chi-square test or Fisher's exact test was utilized for categorical variables. Statistical significance was defined as a p-value of less than 0.05.