Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-02-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make the test for levels of fetal fibronectin to assist in detecting likely premature births available through the NHS.

Ben Gummer

In November 2014, the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) recommended that screening for pre-term birth should not be offered as the available screening test is not reliable. Further research is also needed to better understand the use of fetal fibronectin as a screen indicator in an antenatal screening programme.

The UK NSC concluded that based on the published peer reviewed evidence preterm birth should not be offered for the following reasons:

― The available tests for identifying which asymptomatic women were at risk of preterm labour, including the measurement of cervical length, are not reliable enough to meet the UK NSC’s criteria for use as a screening tool. Screening would identify many women as at risk when they are not, leading to unnecessary preventive treatment;

― The measurement of cervical length has no agreed measurement for establishing which pregnancies are at risk and which are not; and

― There is not enough evidence to suggest that the most effective treatment from preventing preterm labour, vaginal progesterone provides any overall benefit or reduced the likelihood of a baby dying.