Medical science has been struggling to pinpoint the cause of cerebral palsy for a century. Commonly linked to premature birth, efforts to prevent the condition have centered on improvements to fetal monitoring, medications, Cesarean deliveries and neonatal care. The latest news shows these efforts appear to be making a difference.

Better care during pregnancy and birth appears to be making a big difference in the rate and severity of cerebral palsy in developed nations, researchers have reported in the latest issue of the Journal of Pediatrics.

A study of 3,000 premature infants born in the Netherlands shows that cerebral palsy rates declined from 6.5% to 2.2% from 1990 to 2005. The results echo similar results of previous studies in the United States and Canada.

Even better, the researchers found a whopping 93% decrease in cystic periventricular leukomalacia, or white-matter injuries to the brain, which causes severe cerebral palsy.

While Netherland researchers did not investigate the “why” behind fewer of these injuries, they speculated that the credit goes to better care of mothers before, during and after birth.

“There is not really a single factor we can point out,” study author Linda De Vries was quoted in the media as saying. “It is more general improved perinatal care. It was striking that an illness severity score came down significantly. Improved perinatal care, in general, is the best answer to both factors.”

The bad news is that medical science has spent too little time looking at medical error as a source of cerebral palsy. They’d like to believe all doctors and staff follow best medical practices when doing their jobs; that they are all trained adequately in reading fetal heart monitor tracings, that they all promptly and appropriately respond to signs of emergency, that C-sections are not delayed too long to rescue a baby in trouble.

Nearly 800,000 children and adults in the U.S. are living with cerebral palsy, and 10,000 babies are born each year with the condition, according to the United Cerebral Palsy Foundation. Medical science is making strides with lowering these numbers through better care procedures and technology. The next step is to focus on making sure doctors, nurses and hospitals follow best medical practice in delivering this care to further decrease preventable cerebral palsy.