Dosage of oxytocin for augmentation of labor and women's childbirth experiences: A randomized controlled trial

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Oxytocin, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults, women only.

Inclusion criteria were healthy primiparous women at term with uncomplicated singleton pregnancies, cephalic fetal presentation, spontaneous onset of labor, confirmed delayed labor progress and ruptured membranes.

The Childbirth Experience Questionnaire version 2 (CEQ2) was sent to the women 1 month after birth.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind, multicenter and parallel-group study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Oxytocin group and the comparison group should start out alike.

As a double-blind Oxytocin study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

More than one site took part, so the participants came from several places.

Groups ran in parallel: each of the participants stayed in one arm throughout.

A multicenter, parallel, double-blind randomized controlled trial took place in six Swedish labor wards.

The CEQ2 consists of 22 items in four domains: Own capacity, Perceived safety, Professional support and Participation.

In addition, labor pain was reported with a visual analog scale (VAS) 2 hours postpartum and 1 month after birth.

The main outcome was the childbirth experience measured with the four domains of the CEQ2.

The clinical trial number is NCT01587625.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Labor Pain, Labor, Obstetric, Oxytocics, Oxytocin, Pain Measurement, Pain Perception and Parturition.

Author keywords: birth, childbirth experience, delayed labor, oxytocin augmentation and randomized controlled trial.

What This Means in Plain Language

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

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 6 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2021 (Acta obstetricia et gynecologica Scandinavica), a journal based in United States.

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