Pitocin for placenta

Jessica&Bobby · December 2011

What do you think of getting pitocin after the delivery of the placenta? I guess I've heard that is prevents hemorrhoging. Is this common practice at the hospital? I guess I don't know much about it.

JennPierog · December 2011

I would, your labors done you have had your baby. Its given to help with placenta delivery and if I needed it to prevent post partum hemorrage I would.

nosoup4u · December 2011

It's standard practice anymore. I personally don't have a problem with it, but there's a decent amount of women who don't want it, which is fine. Having the baby latch on right away does the same thing.

Ask your provider about what they do, because you need to let them know if you don't want it, ahead of time.

MrsS2203 · December 2011

Yes it is becoming common practice to give pitocin after delivery for 2 reasons. 1) prevent hemorrhage 2) contract the uterus back(stop excessive bleeding)

I was on pit my whole labor. I had 1 bag after DS was delivered. I can honestly say that I didn't notice, care about the contractions the pit caused. I believe for most(non-induced) deliveries they administer a shot vs continuous IV...ask your OB/hospital their policy on this.

The OBs/nurses massaging my uterus hurt way more than the pitocin. Hope this helps.

chicsub · December 2011

I didn't have it and don't even remember delivering my placenta, so it must have been pretty seamless. If I was having problems I would probably be OK with it, but otherwise I wouldn't just do it routinely after having a med-free birth. I had a c/s the first time at a different hospital, but I pit wasn't routine there either, at least under the care of the midwives.

robyn2201 · December 2011

At the hospital I delivered at, it is automatically given unless you request otherwise. I spoke with my OB about it and she said if there was any excessive bleeding she would give me the shot. Everything went fine and I never needed it. I don't see a reason to get it if it's not needed.

frostnoel · December 2011

I was induced with DS#1, so I was already on Pit. With DS#2, I had a med-free birth with a shot of Pit at the end. I dodn't really notice the contrax at that point. I am planning on asking the staff to wait and see with this birth. I don't think its the end of the world if I get it, but I dont think it should be routine.

JLG95 · December 2011

I got pitocin right after my son was born. It was a completely natural birth until that point.

The umbilical cord broke, the placenta came apart, and I was bleeding heavily. So I got the pitocin to help stop the bleeding while the midwife scraped my uterus and manually removed the placenta. I didn't feel any discomfort from the drug, but the scraping sure hurt.

cros8380 · December 2011

I didn't even realize that this was common practice! I didn't want or have an IV and I breastfed immediately after delivering DD. I delivered the placenta within 20 minutes of her birth (thanks to her latching immediately) and was low risk for the entire thing. I would talk to your provider and ask them questions about when it's necessary. I wouldn't have taken pitocin if it was not an emergency.

catsinawindow · December 2011

MrsS2203:

Yes it is becoming common practice to give pitocin after delivery for 2 reasons. 1) prevent hemorrhage 2) contract the uterus back(stop excessive bleeding)

I was on pit my whole labor. I had 1 bag after DS was delivered. I can honestly say that I didn't notice, care about the contractions the pit caused. I believe for most(non-induced) deliveries they administer a shot vs continuous IV...ask your OB/hospital their policy on this.

The OBs/nurses massaging my uterus hurt way more than the pitocin. Hope this helps.

Pretty much exactly this (except I have no idea how much they gave me after DS was born). I was bleeding pretty bad (although not hemorrhage levels) so I would have needed it anyway.

Even if I had avoided induction, I would still have been OK with routine post-partum pit. It has been clinically shown to improve outcomes for mom and prevent hemmorage. The main reason I wanted a natural birth was because, medically, it is the safest way to birth with the best outcomes for mom and baby. Post-partum pit falls into this category as well, IMO.

AmyRI · December 2011

I delivered the baby and the placenta, and then was hooked up to pit to contract my uterus and prevent bleeding. Honestly, I didn't realize they had hooked me up until a few minutes later and I asked what I was being given. They said it is routine to give it. Luckily it was ok with me - I was wanting a med-free birth for the baby's sake. Pit and ibuprofen soon after delivery for my health and comfort was fine by me!

rjveldman · December 2011

When my DS was born, it was looking like I was going to start hemorrhaging. The doc said he had an order in which he tried things: first, he massaged my uterus, second, he inserted a catheter into my bladder to drain it, and third, he would have administered pitocin. The catheter ended up working (don't ask me how that works), so he never had to resort to the pit, but the nurse was standing over me with the needle waiting to plunge it into my thigh if it was needed. In hind sight, I might have preferred the pitocin. He sort of surprised me with the catheter. I remembered later on that he had said that he was going to do that, but in the moment it totally caught me off guard. Having something shoved up your ying-yang when you aren't prepared is a little unnerving to say the least.

abell77 · December 2011

I don't agree with the routine administration of pitocin for this purpose. It should be used on a case by case basis if the uterus is not contracting properly. Otherwise this just seems like another example to me of not trusting a woman's body to do what it was designed to do...give birth, including the placenta.

StefandTodd · December 2011

I was told it was absolutely routine and to expect it (by my OB and by one of the midwifes in my practice). I still put it in my birth plan and my H and doula knew I didn't want it so just before I gave birth, my H told the midwife delivering me that I didn't want it. She agreed to have it close by to administer if I needed it. I didn't need it. I agree with PPs that IMO it should be case by case and not routine. Why would I want a synthetic hormone injected into me just after a completely natural birth if I didn't need it at all? Just didn't make sense to me.

Rosebud2587 · December 2011

I did not have it and was fine. In fact, I was discharged just 10 hrs after giving birth...

Jessica&Bobby · December 2011

Thanks for all the information and opinions on this. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. I can see both sides. The hospitals that do this routinely think it's easier to prevent the possibility of excessive bleeding before it happens than it is to stop it once it starts. I can see that. I also feel like after making it through a natural birth with no medication, it doesn't make sense to get pitocin. We'll see.

tomandcourt · December 2011

Our birth class instructor told us that this was something the doctor might want to do. She didn't mention the hemorrhaging aspect, but to me it seemed so silly--I went all natural, and now there's some rush to get drugs into me to get the placenta out?

After I delivered, my doc said "OK, now we're going to give you some pitocin to help you get the placenta out." I said, "No, thanks, I want to deliver it naturally." And I did, a few minutes later, with no issues.

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