Terbutaline for Slowing Preterm Labor
Why It Is Used
Terbutaline can be used during preterm labor when:
- Labor needs to be delayed for 24 to 48 hours
to:
- Let Reference corticosteroids Opens New Window, given to the mother, help fetal lungs mature.
- Provide time to move a mother to a hospital that provides neonatal intensive care, if her local hospital does not.
- Regular uterine contractions have thinned (effaced) the Reference cervix Opens New Window less than 80% and opened (dilated) it less than 4 cm, and the mother's amniotic sac has not broken.
- The mother is healthy.
- The fetus is alive and not in distress.
Depending on the medical facility, terbutaline may be the first medicine used to delay premature birth.
| By: | Reference Healthwise Staff | Last Revised: January 10, 2011 |
| Medical Review: | Reference Sarah Marshall, MD - Family Medicine
Reference William Gilbert, MD - Maternal and Fetal Medicine |
|
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