procardia and brethine combo

MexiBride08

Anyone do both?  I thought someone on here took procardia all the time and brethine as needed.  And I think I remember someone else saying that they had to switch back and forth between the two because they became less effective over time.

 My dr. switched me to brethine oral 5mg every 4 hours... but I feel like I am contracting too much still.  I still have procardia left.  She just said not to take the two together all the time.  I am thinking about switching back and forth between the 2 every couple of says and see how I do.

Procardia had calmed down the contrax and brethine shots helped when they became too intense.  But after 8 l&d visits, she decided to give to brethine a try.  Maybe the oral brethine just doesnt work as well?

Not dying to get this baby out.  I would prefer he bakes as long as possible.  Per the hospital policy, they typically discontinue meds and stopping labor at 36 weeks.  She is letting me take the meds until 37 weeks (family travel issues)  but if I end up in labor they wont stop it.

orthomom

Looks like you are doing great! Only a few days left. I never had your problem but I wanted to wish you luck.

christina06

With my first pregnancy, I did alternate between both.  I was on procardia/nifedipine for a while and after I had a bleed they used terbutaline/brethine shots to control the contractions and I switched over to terb oral.  The terb pills definitely do not work as well as the shots but the side effects of the pill are definitely more bearable.  It felt like the terb worked better than the procardia but I hated the side effects more.  I did alternate but it was like a month at a time between meds.  I do think that a few times when the procardia didn't seem to work, I could wait four hours and take a terbutaline pill but that was rare and I always called my doc first.  I'd discuss alternating every few days with them to be on the safe side b/c I'm not sure how long it takes to build up or leave your system.

This pregnancy I don't have as many factors against me so I've only been on the procardia for a few weeks now and it's still working fine. 

You've got a few weeks to go and congrats on getting this far! I'll be stopping procardia at 36/37 weeks as well.  sending you T&P's!

 Oh - and I remember that the terb/brethine would wear off faster so I had to literally set an alarm every 4 hours to make sure I took it on time!