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Biotech / Medical : Matria Healthcare (MATR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: satish kamat who wrote (134)	3/19/1998 8:29:00 PM
From: GREATMOOD	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 220

Women Unite to Deliver What's 'Best For Baby WASHINGTON--(BW HealthWire)--March 19, 1998-- "Best For Baby" Campaign Launched to Safeguard and Advance Treatment Options Available to Women with High-Risk Pregnancies Only 4 in 10 mothers-to-be complete their pregnancy and delivery without medical problems. This means that 6 in 10 mothers-to-be have pregnancy complications requiring medical attention. To address this critical situation, the Coalition for Positive Outcomes in Pregnancy (CPOP) has organized a partnership of national women's advocacy groups to launch BEST FOR BABY: A Campaign for Comprehensive High-Risk Pregnancy Care. BEST FOR BABY is a collaborative public service initiative aimed at safeguarding and advancing treatment options available to women with high-risk pregnancies. The campaign strives to educate and empower high-risk pregnant families through awareness, advocacy and access to information and support services in a nationwide effort to improve pregnancy outcomes. "I'm involved because babies' lives are at stake," explains Sherokee Ilse, noted author of Empty Arms: Coping with Miscarriage, Stillbirth and Infant Death and the chairperson for CPOP's High-Risk Pregnancy Task Force. Ilse is also serving as the volunteer national spokesperson for the BEST FOR BABY Campaign. "Preterm birth is the major cause of infant mortality for babies 22 to 37 weeks of age. Beyond the shattered dreams of infant loss looms a lifetime of catastrophic consequences associated with babies born too soon: neurodevelopmental disabilities, cerebral palsy, seizure disorders, blindness, mental retardation and even death." She adds, "High-risk pregnancy is a national crisis of epic proportions. These high-risk pregnancies carry a high price tag for families and for their babies for years to come - compromised quality of life, time lost in the workplace, soaring medical bills and intense grief. More than $5 billion is expended each year for neonatal intensive care. For these reasons and more, it is essential that all safe and effective treatment care options available to high-risk families be safeguarded and advanced." Organizers of the BEST FOR BABY Campaign were spurred to action by a recent FDA warning against subcutaneous terbutaline infusion therapy, commonly used to prolong pregnancy for high-risk mothers who can be effectively managed at home. The warning constitutes a surprise reversal of the FDA's previously supportive stance and appears to have been issued without benefit of sound scientific evidence or due process. This FDA action could potentially eliminate one of the few tools available to clinicians for prolonging pregnancy and has already generated a wave of confusion among high-risk pregnancy patients, physicians and insurers. According to Fung Lam, M.D., F.A.C.O.G and a pioneer in the development of subcutaneous terbutaline infusion therapy, "Subcutaneous terbutaline infusion therapy gives high-risk pregnant patients the hope of spending treatment time at home. On average, our patients have had more than six weeks of effective tocolysis with fewer side effects than encountered with either oral or intravenous treatments. The continuous low dose infusion and programmable boluses ensure patient's compliance, avoid disrupting sleep, reduces patient stress, and heightens the patient's sense of control in most cases. The continuous infusion also helps maintain the patient's blood levels in an effective therapeutic range." "In addition," he continued, "the cost of treating patients at home is one third the cost of hospital treatments." Dr. Lam is in private practice at California-Pacific Medical Center, is an Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco and Section Chair for the American Academy of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. "It kept me from dilating. Both my perinatologist and I are convinced that the 16 weeks that I was at home on bedrest with the terbutaline pump saved my babies' lives," states Lisa Grandovic, a mother of triplets, who delivered three healthy babies at 35 weeks. "It is upsetting to think that some other high-risk pregnant mother out there may be denied this valuable treatment option - and that she may not be able to have the positive outcome I was fortunate to have because of a rush to judgment on the part of the FDA." "Aids to medicine such as this one," explained Ilse, "which help to prolong a pregnancy by several hours, several days, or even several weeks, can make a big difference with respect to newborn survival and neonatal outcomes. The FDA needs to hear from the thousands of physicians and patients who have successfully used this form of therapy - commonly prescribed for controlling preterm labor - before it denies this critical treatment option for high-risk pregnant moms." Support of subcutaneous terbutaline infusion therapy is the first initiative in a number of issues this campaign will address in order to do what's BEST FOR BABY. CONTACT: BEST FOR BABY Campaign Kyle Rogers or Phipps Cohe, 202/347-5809