Nifedipine Oral: Preterm Labour Dosing
Immediate-release nifedipine guidance for threatened premature labour, with short-course dosing and cardiovascular precautions.
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Source reviewed
February 2024
Guide category
Oral drugs
Safety boundary
Prescription medicine information for clinician-guided use.
Kenza Health Hub presents this medicine page as structured health education. Check dose, route, interactions, pregnancy or breast-feeding considerations, and local protocol with a qualified clinician or pharmacist. Read our medical editorial policy.
Therapeutic action
Uterine relaxant.
Indications
Threatened premature labour.
Forms and strengths
- 10 mg immediate-release soft capsule or tablet.
Dose and duration
The total duration of treatment is 48 hours.
- 10 mg by oral route, to be repeated every 15 minutes if uterine contractions persist, up to 4 doses or 40 mg total.
- Then 20 mg by oral route every 6 hours.
Contra-indications, adverse effects, precautions
- Do not administer to patients with severe cardiac disease such as recent myocardial infarction or unstable angina.
- Do not administer if systolic blood pressure is below 90 mmHg.
- May cause headache, flushing, peripheral oedema, dizziness, hypotension, tachycardia, nausea, gingival hyperplasia, and rash.
- Stop nifedipine if ischaemic chest pain occurs or existing pain increases after starting treatment.
- Do not combine with magnesium sulphate, salbutamol IV, or other calcium channel blockers.
- Monitor combination with cimetidine, phenytoin, rifampicin, itraconazole, and beta-blockers.
- Pregnancy: contraindicated during the first trimester. Never administer sublingually because of the risk of foetal death from placental hypoperfusion.
- Breast-feeding: avoid.
Source
MSF Essential drugs practical guidelines (January 2026)
This page combines source-derived medicine reference sections with Kenza editorial context, while leaving out the Storage and Remarks sections from the source batch.
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