Health Information
Indomethacin for Slowing Preterm Labor
Why It Is Used
Indomethacin is used only:
- For short-term treatment of preterm labor.
- Before 31 to 32 weeks of pregnancy.
Indomethacin can be used to treat 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 contractions of the uterus have thinned the Reference cervix Opens New Window less than 80% and opened it less than 4 cm, and the mother's Reference amniotic sac Opens New Window has not broken.
- Beta-sympathetic medicines (such as terbutaline) have not stopped uterine contractions.
- Treatment with other tocolytic medicines was stopped because of side effects.
| 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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