Earlier in the novel, in Chapter 3, it is specified that she uses laudanum.... if Molly should take a drop too much laudanum some day, and make a widower of you. Wilkie Collins novel The Moonstone (1868) features laudanum "as an essential ingredient of the plot." Collins based his description of the drugs effects on his own experiences with it. A laudanum-addicted character also appeared in Wilkie Collins novel Armadale (1864–66). Laudanum appears in Charles Baudelaires prose poem The Double Room, published in his collection Le Spleen de Paris in 1869. Laudanum is portrayed as the surgical drug of choice for fifteenth-century physicians in Lawrence Schoonovers novel The Burnished Blade (1948), the plot of which deals in part with the smuggling of expensive raw opium into France from the Empire of Trebizond. In William Faulkners novel Requiem for a Nun (1951), Compson, Doctor Peabody, and Ratcliffe give whiskey tainted with laudanum to a group of rowdy lynchers and a militia band that had joined together. Upon their falling asleep, they were gathered up and locked in jail while still unconscious. Stephen Maturin, one of the main characters in Patrick OBrians Aubrey–Maturin series of novels (1969–2004) about the Napoleonic wars, is a sometime laudanum addict. Laudanum is prescribed in Glendon Swarthouts novel The Shootist (1975) to the character J.B. Books, played by John Wayne in Don Siegels movie adaptation (1976).
Tocolytics (also called anti-contraction medications or labor suppressants) are medications used to suppress premature labor (from Greek τόκος tókos, "childbirth", and λύσις lúsis, "loosening"). Preterm birth accounts for 70% of neonatal deaths. Therefore, tocolytic therapy is provided when delivery would result in premature birth, postponing delivery long enough for the administration of glucocorticoids, which accelerate fetal lung maturity but may require one to two days to take effect. Commonly used tocolytic medications include β2 agonists, calcium channel blockers, NSAIDs, and magnesium sulfate. These can assist in delaying preterm delivery by suppressing uterine muscle contractions and their use is intended to reduce fetal morbidity and mortality associated with preterm birth. The suppression of contractions is often only partial and tocolytics can only be relied on to delay birth for a matter of days. Depending on the tocolytic used, the pregnant woman or fetus may require monitoring (e.g., blood pressure monitoring when nifedipine is used as it reduces blood pressure; cardiotocography to assess fetal well-being). In any case, the risk of preterm labor alone justifies hospitalization. Indications
Tocolytics are used in preterm labor, which refers to when a baby is born too early before 37 weeks of pregnancy. As preterm birth represents one of the leading causes of neonatal morbidity and mortality, the goal is to prevent neonatal morbidity and mortality through delaying delivery and increasing gestational age by gaining more time for other management strategies like corticosteroids therapy that may help with fetus lung maturity.