Epsom salts may protect preemies

Doctors can cut the risk of cerebral palsy in half for very premature babies by giving their mothers magnesium sulfate just before they give birth, researchers reported this week at a meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in Dallas.

The mineral compound, also known as Epsom salts, is already used to treat pregnancy-related high blood pressure and to stop early labor. Doctors should consider giving it to women about to deliver an extremely preterm infant, said one of the researchers, Dr. John Thorp of the University of North Carolina.

Thorp said it wasn’t clear how magnesium sulfate works, but it was thought to open up blood vessels in the newborn’s brain.