How often do you give Morphine 4mg SUBCUT to a L&D mom?

[christinaaaamarie]

Hello,

I am new to the OB unit.

I heard morphine can be bad for a baby.

Before my friend left her clinical rotation today she said her mom was on Morphine 4mg subq but she didn't see if it was prn or how often it was given. Do any of you know how often laboring moms are usually given morphine sub cut?

What about Penicillin G Potassium 5 million units?

Thanks in advance.

[klone, MSN, RN]

I've never heard of giving morphine subcutaneously. It's not a preferred analgesic in labor, although we will sometimes give it to a woman IV who are in prodromal labor "morphine sleep".

Pen G is given for GBS positive women in labor.

[perfexion, ASN, RN]

Ditto. Why would you give morphine subQ? And PCN 5 million units is only given for the first dose if a mom is GBS positive. The subsequent doses are 2.5 million units.

[Calinurse4]

Agree with above. PCN 5mill for initial dose for GBS+ mom and we "sleep" patients with Morphine but we also keep them overnight (I work NOC) to monitor them. We give it IM.

[Katie71275]

I've never given Morphine to a laboring mom, except for a mom that was perhaps in prodromal early labor and sent home. or preterm labor pain, we would do Morphine 5 & 5(so 5 IV and 5 IM).

As for the PCN, the PCNG 5 mil is given 1 dose, then 3 million dose q4 for GBS+ patients.

[cayenne06, MSN, CNM]

Yes, we give morphine IV and IM for therapeutic rest- depending on the patient, maybe 5mg IV and 5-10mg IM at the same time.

Opioids can be "bad" for babies in that they can depress respiratory function at birth, so when patients are in labor we stick to antag/agon like stadol, and/or super short acting ones like fentanyl.

Sometimes we give nubain subq in labor, again usually with an IV dose too ( 5 & 5, generally).