Diet and nutrition are an important part of living well with kidney disease. As your kidney disease progresses, your dietary needs will likely change as well. Click on the appropriate stage below to learn more about diet and kidney disease.
Tocolytics are drugs that minimize the strength and number of contractions. Although an ideal goal would be to stop preterm labor completely, the most that can be reasonably expected from current tocolytics is a delay of 48 hours. This delay allows time for treatment with steroids and antibiotics.
According to Dr. Fink on the website Pregnancy Today, a medication known as ritodrine was approved by the FDA in 1980 as a labor-inhibiting agent but it is no longer on the market. Since terbutaline is so similar, it is frequently used in preterm labor to relax the uterine muscles and stop the contractions. The website further states that: Many pregnant women have crampy preterm uterine contractions that cause them to present to labor and delivery units for evaluation and treatment.