Oral misoprostol versus oxytocin in the management of the third stage of labour

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Oxytocin.

Blood samples were taken to determine hemoglobin concentration before delivery and at 12 hours post partum.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults, women only.

This randomized controlled trial was performed in a rural district hospital in Ghana, West Africa, and enrolled women in labour with anticipated vaginal delivery and no known medical contraindication to prostaglandin administration.

Treatment was administered at delivery of the anterior shoulder.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized and double-blind study.

Because people in this Oxytocin study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Oxytocin, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

The primary outcome was the change in hemoglobin concentration from before to after delivery.

Secondary outcomes included other measures of blood loss and presumed medication side effects.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Developing Countries, Fever, Ghana, Hemoglobins, Labor Stage, Third, Misoprostol and Oxytocics.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and double-blind study of Oxytocin.

Results are reported in around 6 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2006 (Journal of obstetrics and gynaecology Canada : JOGC = Journal d'obstetrique et gynecologie du Canada : JOGC), a journal based in Netherlands.

More context: the Oxytocin compound page, all human trials.