my story
Cris Coffey (CCOFFEY@rugs.bry.indiana.edu)
Mon, 25 Mar 1996 14:57:50 EST5
Hello. My son, Brandon was born only 4 weeks premature, but my
pregnancy was so rough that I want to compare notes with other
parents. At 19 weeks I went into premature labor. I was placed on
strict bed rest (bedside potty, no showers....) and began using
terbutaline to control the contractions. I received my doses of
terbutaline every three hours via the catheter in my leg. It was
hooked up to a little machine that timed my doses for me, so that I
would also receive them in the middle of the night (it's not like I
could sleep, anyway!).
I was on terbutaline for a total of 16 weeks. During that time I
also received steriod injections to mature Brandon's lungs--the
doctors did not expect me to carry him past the point of danger for
preemies. It turns out that he was a true miracle. I carried him to
36 weeks. The very day I was allowed out of bed and discontinued
the terbutaline, I wound up in labor and delivery (I only lasted 3-4
hours after I stopped the terbutaline and got out of bed--I was
hanging on by a thread!). By some miracle, Brandon weighed 7 lbs. 3
oz, and was so healthy that he went home with me the next day.
Now the troubles. Not only did he have his eating schedule as a
newborn, it was like clockwork. He was hungry every three hours--on
the hour. Coincidentally, they were the exact hours I had received my
doses of terbutaline all those months. We think the terbutaline was
still working on him since he got a jolt every time I got the
terbutaline dose. Also, he did not develop normally. At 7 months,
he'd never supported his own head, sat up, rolled over, crawled, or
anything. He was limp and didn't usually kick his legs the way other
babies do. Test after test ruled out MD, which is what the
specialists were suspecting. He was diagnosed with "hypotonia",
which just means his muscles were weak. Physical therapy brought him
out of it, and he was walking right on schedule with other babies.
Since there was really nothing more than that wrong with him, my
family and I wonder if the terbutaline also delayed his muscular
development.
Brandon is now an active 3 1/2 year old. He is extremely intelligent
for his age, as well as BIG! He's so smart, speaks so well, and is
so big, he is often mistaken (even by his daycare providers!) for a 5
or 6 year old. I'm wondering if the terbutaline or even the steriods
contributed to this.
I'd like to hear from anyone else out there with similar experiences
or children like mine after using terbutaline to control labor. The
drug has not really been studied all that much for this particular
use, since it's FDA approved only for treatment of athsma--physicians
just started using it to treat pre-term labor because they found it
worked for that purpose. Anyone with a similar story?
Cris Coffey, mother of Brandon
ccoffey@indiana.edu