Intramuscular Pitocin and separation of the placenta with foetal death

Abstract

It is becoming increasingly clear that oxytocin is being employed more frequently to induce labour and in the management of cases of hypotonic uterine inertia in the first stage of labour. The administration of pitocin for these conditions, either by the intravenous drip method, as suggested by Theobald (1948), or by the intramuscular use of 2 - 5 units half hourly for a maximum of six doses, has been freely reviewed over the past decade by British and American obstetricians. From all this literature the fact also emerges that pitocin, when administered before the birth of the baby, may not only be erratic in its mode of action, but it may well prove to be a dangerous oxytocic either to the mother or to her baby or both. In the two cases reported below, a varying degree of separation of the placenta with foetal death occurred following the administration of pitocin by the intramuscular route.