Background Antenatal steroids are standard of care for women who are at risk of preterm
delivery; however, antenatal steroid dosing and formulation have not been evaluated
adequately. The standard clinical 2-dose treatment with betamethasone-acetate+
betamethasone-phosphate is more effective than 2 doses of betamethasone-phosphate for
the induction of lung maturation in preterm fetal sheep. We hypothesized that the slowly
released betamethasone-acetate component induces similar lung maturation to …