Word: uteruses
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Rosanne, 26, was in the seventh month of her first pregnancy when things began to go wrong. The baby's head was far down in the uterus, apparently ready to begin a premature journey to the outside world. Admitted to the hospital for observation, Rosanne soon went into labor; contractions came only three minutes apart. Had the baby been born then, at a weight of no more than 3 Ibs. and with frail, immature lungs, it would surely have developed life-threatening respiratory problems. But Rosanne and her baby were lucky. Given ritodrine, an experimental medication, Rosanne ceased...
Ritodrine, developed by a Dutch pharmaceutical house and used in Europe for the past eight years, inhibits labor by relaxing the muscles of the uterus. In tests on 350 pregnant women at eleven centers in the U.S., it has successfully prolonged pregnancy to the 36th week in more than half of the cases. The drug, to be sure, has side effects, including increased maternal and fetal heart rate, a slight drop in blood pressure, palpitations, tremors and nervousness. Recalls one Chicago mother, Susie Kellett: "It was like superspeed." Still, the effects appear to be transient; Kellett went on to give...
...experiencing early labor. Explains Merkatz: "Its use is appropriate in uncomplicated, premature labor where there do not seem to be additional medical complications affecting either the mother or baby." That would rule out women with hypertension or heart conditions, and pregnancies in which the placenta has separated from the uterus or in which the amniotic sac has ruptured and become infected. Nonetheless, ritodrine should be useful to about a quarter of women in preterm labor. Says Merkatz: "It's not a panacea for the whole problem of premature delivery. But it will certainly help...
...vaginal discharges. Left unchecked, such infections can scar and block the fallopian tubes, where the union of egg and sperm takes place, and sometimes lead to a hysterectomy. The I.U.D., when it fails, has also been suspected of causing ectopic pregnancies, in which the fetus grows outside the uterus. But recent studies indicate that the devices actually seem to reduce that danger in users compared with women who employ no contraception...
...precise role of the I.U.D. in pelvic infections still puzzles doctors. One theory is that bacteria are able to ascend into the uterus via the threads that are attached to I.U.D.s to let women check on their proper position and make their removal easier. Another possibility: the I.U.D. somehow makes the uterus more hospitable, biochemically speaking, to invading bacteria. By contrast, birth control pills seem to have the opposite effect, suppressing infection...