Do you need a referral for antenatal steroid injection?

Antenatal corticosteroids, sometimes called lung maturity injections, may be considered when clinicians think birth could happen early. The maternity team checks your pregnancy, symptoms, examination findings, and the possible timing of birth before recommending treatment.

In an urgent situation, the hospital team can assess you and arrange the injection without waiting for a routine primary-care referral. If you are already under a hospital maternity service, that team may coordinate everything directly.

Contact your midwife, obstetrician, maternity assessment unit, or pregnancy care provider and explain why you have been advised to ask about the injection. Ask whether you should attend urgently, and take your pregnancy records and medication list if you are asked to come in.

Do not delay contact while trying to obtain a standard referral. The decision includes gestational age, the reason early birth is being considered, and whether another treatment or monitoring is needed.

Seek urgent maternity advice for regular contractions, vaginal bleeding, leaking fluid, reduced fetal movement, severe abdominal pain, severe headache, visual changes, or sudden swelling. These symptoms need assessment even if you have not yet discussed steroids.

Ask which service will arrange the injection, why it is being recommended now, how many doses are planned, and what monitoring you and your baby may need. Clarify where to go if contractions, bleeding, or fluid loss begins.