hey guys today we are going to take the internet's top questions on pitocin and
see how many i can get through in the next five minutes and the timer will start when my assistant
reads the first question are pitocin and oxytocin the same thing so oxytocin is the hormone the
love hormone that regulates childbirth labor it regulates breastfeeding and pitocin is an
artificial version of oxytocin will pitocin make you dilate so as long as your body is open and
receptive to it pitocin will cause contractions and then the contractions make you dilate so
pitocin doesn't really make you dilate it makes your body contract will pitocin make your water
break oh similar question so pitocin doesn't make your water break but pitocin could make
your uterus contract and that contraction could cause your water to break how is pitocin given
pitocin can actually be given a couple ways the most common when it's used for augmenting labor or
starting labor it's given through an iv drip and it the quant the amount of it is regulated with
the pump the uh um how much is given in the saline so it's dil diluted in saline and it's given an iv
but it can also be given in an injection with a shot into a muscle um just a different usage that
would be to help prevent uh bleeding after birth when will pitocin kick in that is a really good
question and we cannot predict it so pitocin and people's um receptiveness to pitocin is it really
varies sometimes you can get an iv with a pitocin induction and your body starts responding in the
first you know 15 20 30 minutes other people it takes hours and a higher amount of pitocin
in order for it to kick in so it's it's kind of hard to predict though if your body is already
in labor and you're augmenting so you're adding to the labor with pitocin that is faster usually
than inducing with pitocin will pitocin slow down labor so pitocin doesn't slow labor really
it is um if anything it will and should pick up labor yeah our pitocin contractions worse
this is like the question that everybody wants to know and it's tricky because you don't know
unless you're inside your body you know a body of someone who's experiencing them and that they've
experienced labor before but what i will say is that when you have a pitocin augmented or
pitocin-induced labor contractions are generally closer together and so while we don't know if the
intensity is necessarily stronger or different than non-pitocin contractions they generally come
quicker and the interval is closer together can pitocin not work yeah pitocin can not work there
are cases and times sometimes where someone will be on a pitocin iv for hours and hours and just
we don't don't really get a good labor pattern established and sometimes what we've seen is
uh care providers will turn off the iv and then later they will restart it again to
see if it'll work maybe in the next day or maybe when your body is more receptive to it
can pitocin cause fetal distress so pitocin can cause contractions that
are so close together or intense uh the spacing is such that the uh the fetus can go into distress
because of that pattern now if that happens uh the good news is that the pump can be regulated
or turned off so that the pitocin amount in your body can slow down and hopefully allow
babies to recover but yes sometimes that does happen what's pitocin like with a closed cervix
so pitocin isn't always given when the cervix is closed sometimes there is a step before that
to try to thin and open the cervix a little bit before pitocin starts but really depends
on the care provider it it people can get pitocin with a closed cervix pitocin like for postpartum
hemorrhage so pitocin is often given after birth to help prevent a postpartum hemorrhage so in
order to help the uterus really contract down and just preventatively given and can be given either
through an iv or intramuscularly with a shot can pitocin cause hemorrhaging
no pitocin doesn't cause hemorrhaging let me know in the comments if you
were if there were any questions that we didn't get to that you want answered on pitocin and if
you like this rapid style video i've got a whole playlist with more check that out here bye guys
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