Midwifery Essay: Syntocinon's Impact on Labour and Postpartum Care

This midwifery essay examines the use of syntocinon, a synthetic form of oxytocin, in various aspects of labor and delivery. The essay details how syntocinon is used to induce or augment labor by strengthening uterine contractions, thereby potentially shortening the duration of labor. It discusses the benefits of syntocinon, including pain relief and the reduction of maternal stress and anxiety. The essay also highlights the use of oxytocin in managing postpartum hemorrhage by promoting uterine contractions and minimizing blood loss. Furthermore, it explores the drug's role in cases where labor is prolonged or epidural use slows down the process. The essay emphasizes the value of oxytocin in improving both maternal and fetal well-being by facilitating a controlled and efficient labor process and preventing complications like infection and excessive bleeding. The essay concludes by underscoring oxytocin's significance as a valuable drug in midwifery care.

Running head: MIDWIFERY ESSAY
Midwifery essay
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1MIDWIFERY ESSAY
Syntocinon contains naturally occurring hormone called oxytocin that works in the same
way as the natural hormone to stimulate labour. This synthetic hormone helps to initiate or
continue labour, relieve pain and control bleeding during the onset of delivery. When
contractions are too weak, syntocinon is induced containing oxytocin to induce labour or in cases
where labour does not start naturally (Erickson, Lee & Emeis, 2017). This medicine has many
benefits as it strengthens the uterine contractions to push the baby out of the body during labour
and birth. To shorten the length of labour, oxytocin is induced that increases contractions during
labour and birth. Induced labour takes a lot of time to establish and is intense as compared to
spontaneous labour. It is painful and therefore, to relieve pain, oxytocin is induced that shorten
the length of labour by increasing contractions. This reduction of labour is priority of intrapartum
care from the mother and foetal well-being. For this, oxytocin in the form of syntocinon helps to
shorten the pain exposure, stress, anxiety that improves the health and well-being of mother and
satisfaction with childbirth. This also accelerates the progression of labour with better care and
management of labour during birth and augmentation. The labour is at ease due to induction by
oxytocin and the medicine can be controlled as per the patient requirement and time of delivery
(Iravani et al., 2015).
Oxytocin is also used for the delivery of placenta. Postpartum hemorrhage is a major
cause for maternal mortality and morbidity. It is caused due to uterine atony occurring during
immediate postpartum period. For the physiologic management of this condition, uterotonic
medication like oxytocin is given to decrease the postpartum hemorrhage risk and maternal
blood loss. This also reduces the increased risk for retained placenta and chances of maternal,
side effects. In cases where augmentation is required as the membrane is broken and the
contractions does not initiate. It is also beneficial in cases where there is slowing down of

2MIDWIFERY ESSAY
epidural, in turn slowing down labour process and therefore oxytocin is required for induction
and in resuming the contractions. In addition, when this hormonal drug is given to the mother, it
helps in the removal of placenta after the birth (Westhoff, Cotter & Tolosa, 2013).
This drug is used to start labour and after the body starts the normal contractions, the
effect of the drug is slowly removed. Therefore, it is the best possible way to induce labour,
reduce labour period and save lot of agony. Infection can also be prevented when labour is
induced by oxytocin like Chorioamnionitis that is bacterial in nature infecting the amnion,
chorion and amniotic fluid. Apart from initiation of labour pain, it also saves from blood loss
during childbirth and in cases of uterine contractions absence during birth and labour. During
augmentation of labour, oxytocin is used that induces uterine contractions and results in a good
labour pattern and it is maintained at the same rate until delivery. Therefore, the above
discussion illustrates that oxytocin is a valuable drug that assist in the uterine contractions that
induces labour, accelerate it and helps to stop bleeding after delivery (Boie et al., 2016).

3MIDWIFERY ESSAY
References
Boie, S., Velu, A. V., Glavind, J., Mol, B. W. J., Uldbjerg, N., de Graaf, I., ... & Bakker, J. J.
(2016). Discontinuation of intravenous oxytocin in the active phase of induced labour.
The Cochrane Library.
Erickson, E. N., Lee, C. S., & Emeis, C. L. (2017). Role of Prophylactic Oxytocin in the Third
Stage of Labor: Physiologic Versus Pharmacologically Influenced Labor and Birth.
Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health.
Iravani, M., Janghorbani, M., Zarean, E., & Bahrami, M. (2015). An overview of systematic
reviews of normal labor and delivery management. Iranian journal of nursing and
midwifery research, 20(3), 293.
Westhoff, G., Cotter, A. M., & Tolosa, J. E. (2013). Prophylactic oxytocin for the third stage of
labour to prevent postpartum haemorrhage. The Cochrane Library.