Labor Delay Drug May Harm Babies

Premature babies born to women who take magnesium sulfate, a drug commonly used to delay pre-term labor, are more likely to require intensive medical care, say Stanford University researchers.

By delaying labor, doctors are able to provide extra care to a mother who gives birth early. But mothers who took magnesium sulfate are likely to experience shorness of breath and have their lungs filled by fluid, and their babies are less healthy than those whose mothers took nifedipine, another common labor-delaying drug.

Infants born to the mothers who received magnesium sulfate, moreover, were more likely to be admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit and to stay there longer - a median of 8.8 days compared with 4.2 days for the nifedipine babies.

Dr. Victoria Camerini, a Los Angeles neonatologist who was not involved in the study, said that magnesium can cause respiratory depression and bowel dysfunction in infants and that the mother's body can transport it across the placenta.

Side effects noted in labor-delay drug [Baltimore Sun]
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