Fetal or neonatal brain injury can result in lifelong neurologic disability. Although survival rates for preterm infants have increased dramatically with the advent of modern perinatal and neonatal intensive care, but the rates of neurologic abnormalities in survivors, particularly motor disorders such as cerebral palsy, have not diminished. Antenatal magnesium sulfate may reduce the rates of cerebral palsy in survivors of preterm birth. There are five randomized controlled trials of magnesium sulfate administered to women at risk of preterm delivery before 34 weeks of gestation which have reported neurological outcomes for the child. From meta-analysis of these randomized trials, the rate of cerebral palsy was reduced by magnesium sulfate (RR, ᄋ·69; 95% CI, ᄋ·54-ᄋ·87; five trials; 6,145 infants) as did the moderate/severe cerebral palsy incidence (RR, 0.64; 95% CI, ᄋ·44-ᄋ·92; three trials; 4387 infants). There was no statistically significant difference between the rates of neonatal adverse outcomes of the magnesium administration group and the control group. In most prospective randomized studies, no significant difference in the severe mother-side side effects between the magnesium sul- fate administration group and the control group.

Antenataᅵ magnesium sulfate therapy is neuroprotective against motor dysfunction in offspring for the preterm infant; however the possibility of an increase in the fetal or neonatal death rate was not completely excluded.