Comparison of Nifedipine and Bed Rest for Inhibiting Threatened Preterm Labour

Abstract

Objective: To compare the success rate of nifedipine administration as a tocolytic agent and bed rest for preventing uterine contraction of pregnant women with threatened preterm labour. Methods: A total of 188 pregnant women with threatened preterm labour between 26-35 weeks were enrolled in this study. Cervical measurement was performed in all patients. All women in each group (94 cases) were randomly inhibited uterine contraction with nifedipine administration and bed rest intervention. Results: Nifedipine took the shorter time than bed rest for contraction inhibition in threatened preterm labour with statistical significance. (nifedipine: 2.31 ± 1.19 hours, bed rest: 2.54 ± 0.71 hours) From subgroup analysis, the success rate of nifedipine inhibition and bed rest in the patients with cervical length <3 cm were 83.9% (26 cases) and 55.2% (16 cases), respectively, which was different with statistical significance. Conclusions: Nifedipine can be used successfully to inhibit contractions in threatened preterm labour. However, if the cervical length was ≥ 3 cm, bed rest should be firstly applied to avoid unnecessary medical intervention.