Procardia

Hi ladies,

I am kind of new around here and have a question for you. Here's a little history about me first. I had preterm labor with ds at 25 weeks (1 cm dilated, 75% effaced) and was stopped with Mag. I spent a week in the hospital and 10 weeks on bedrest/modified bedrest. I delivered him full term at 38w6d!

Now I am pregnant with twins and have been having contractions since 10 weeks and am on modified bedrest. After a trip to L&D for contractions (I had 9 in the 45 minutes they monitored me) I was sent home because I didn't have any shortening, funneling, etc. My Dr prescribed Procardia (Nifedipine) 10mg and I have been taking that for a couple of weeks.

Well last night I had 6 contractions during an hour and then they slowly calmed down. But now I am totally freaked out Shouldn't Procardia be decreasing my contractions? Did anyone else have this happen? What did your Dr do, change perscriptions or just not worry about it? I have an appointment on Tuesday but would appreciate any advice, comments before then.

TIA!

Marisa

 

I took Nifedipine for a little while and it did absolutely nothing for me. I was still having 10-12 contractions per hour. I was switched to terbutaline which worked well for almost 12 weeks. When I say it worked well, I mean that it prevented me from going into labor but towards the end I was still having multiple contractions in an hour, sometimes 8-10 of them. I'd think the doctor would just try something different. I never had any dialation, funneling, shortening etc, until I was taken off the terbutaline at 36 1/2 weeks. I went into labor within 24 hours of going off the meds. I think the doctor would want to do everything possible to stop contractions even if they aren't doing anything for fear that they will start and once they start there is no way to reverse progress. At least that is what I was told. I delivered my twins at 36 weeks 5 days.

 

I was prescribed procardia at 32 weeks and it only worked for a week for me. Then I was in and out of L&D until I delivered at 35 weeks.

 

Terbutaline is often prescribed as well, to calm the contractions. That worked much better for me, but I took that in conjuction with the procardia. Your doctor can also increase your dosing, next to 20 mg, then up to 30 mg max.

For me, the magic med that kind of fixed things for me was Percocet. Yes, the pain narcotic. My peri prescribed a low dose to "calm" my uterus. So from 28-34 weeks, I was on a combo of terb, procardia, and percocet.

 

I started out on 10 mg of Procardia...went up to 20mg...now I'm on the extended day version @ 30mg.

There are a number of other meds, so talk to your doctor. The Procardia never completely stopped my contractions, but it certainly lessened them. The farther along I get, the more contractions I get, which is totally normal.

Complete bedrest has also helped me...10 weeks so far!

Be aware of your contractions. If you have more than 4/hour for two hours or more, call your doctor. You may require an acute treatment at the hospital, like a shot of Terb or Mag Sulfate. The Procardia is more for long-term maintenance...

Good luck!! And take it easy!!!


Lisa

 

I can't say that Procardia stopped my contractions, but it definitely helped. When the drs took me off of it at 33 weeks, I went into labor 3 days later so I feel very certain that it was contributing. I was still in and out of the hospital and failed NST's b/c of contractions.