anyone taken Indocin to stop contractions?

[faith77]

My current situation- Oct 14 my High Risk OB placed me on scheduled rest due to a shortened cervix, the next wk Oct 21st I saw my regular OB and my cervix was still shortening, so I was put on bedrest. Last wk oct 28th my cervix was 50% effaced, more bedrest. This wk I saw my High Risk (Tuesday) and she not only did u/s babies look great- gaining weight- cervix funnelling and she hooked me up to a monitor..... contractions! I had no idea! so from there she checked me into the hospital for the next 3 days- I am on day 2 now. They are giving me 50 mg Indocin every 6 hrs for 72 hrs to control the contractions, so far I am responding and my contractions are lessening. After 72 hrs they will check my cervix, etc... and hopefully feel it is ok to go home on bedrest until it is time. I am 28 wks today and they are hoping we will make it to 32 wks 34 would be much better. My understanding is that Indocin can only be taken for 72 hrs after that it becomes risky so can anyone share their experience w/ this med? will it continue to work after I stop taking it or do the contractions come back and we have just bought ourselves a few extra days? ANY FEEDBACK APPRECIATED!

[dys24]

Hi

I took indocin from 21wks up until 26 wks. The biggest risk for taking indocin is for the baby's heart where the ductus closes too early from the drug. You dont want it to close when the baby is still inside the womb but you want it to close after the baby is born. For me I had 6 contractions within 15min at 21wks with funneling and shortening cervix. They gave me indocin because it is the best drug to sop contractions and stop the cervix to funnel/shorten more. They did tell me they will stop the indocin if they see on u/s if the baby's heart velocity goes up because that causes the ductus to close so they checked my babys hb twice a week via u/s at 26 wks is when my babys velocity went up and they stopped the drug right away. Once you stop it the side effects are reversible and in 2 days the babys heart went back to normal. They replaced my medicine to nifedifine (dont know the spelling) it stops my conractions but my cervix was stable but slowly shortening where as on indocin it lenghten. At my final check up at 31 wks my cervix was 1.7cm with 1.3 funnel but I'm still here at 33 wks. I'm on complete bedrest from 21wks and can start to move around at 34wks-1 week to go!

I dont know if your contractions will return once you stop indocin mine did so i was put on nifedipine which carries little risk to the fetus. I was also told that they would have to stop indocin after 28wks anyway because thats when the risk of the ductus closing becomes much more risky. I'm thinking since your already 28wks they wont continue indocin for more than 72hrs instead maybe they'll put you on nifedipine(procadria) or other drugs to stop contractions.

You should maybe ask about taking prometrium or taking 17p shots since it does help the cervix to be stronger and keep it from shortening more. I take 200mg pill a day vaginally and read many studies that show that it does help in shortening cervix.

Good luck to you and if you have any questions feel free to ask!