Pitocin is one of those topics that comes up in almost every birth conversation, and it can feel so spicy - like you have to pick a side before you even understand what it is. So in this episode, I'm pulling the spice out of it and just giving you the practical, foundational stuff: what Pitocin actually is (hint: it's synthetic oxytocin, not the real thing, even though the bag says otherwise), how it's different from the oxytocin your body naturally makes, and why the fact that it doesn't cross the blood-brain barrier actually matters for how your labor might feel. I'm walking you through eight things I think every person giving birth should know - from how it's dosed and titrated, to what your nurse is actually watching for on that monitor, to the difference between Pitocin during labor versus that standard dose you get afterward to help prevent hemorrhage.

Join YBYB: www.thelabormama.com/birth & use the code PODCAST to save 20%

My goal here was never to tell you whether to say yes or no to Pitocin - that's not my job, and it never will be. What I want is for you to walk away understanding it well enough that when it comes up in your own labor, you feel educated instead of overwhelmed, and you know exactly what questions to ask. Because at the end of the day, you don't have to be pro-Pitocin or anti-Pitocin. You just deserve to understand what it is so you can be part of that conversation when the time comes.

Mentioned in this episode:

Listen to episode 60: Induction Part 2: Induction Methods - Foley Bulbs, Pitocin, AROM, & More

Listen to episode 59: Induction Part 1: What You Need to Know Before We Talk About How it's Done

Listen to episode 20: Active Management or Hands Off? Your Third Stage of Labor Options with Miri Halliday, BS, CPM, LM

Helpful Timestamps:

• 00:00 Pitocin
• 04:05 What Pitocin Is
• 06:15 Risks And Tradeoffs
• 09:08 Pitocin Vs Oxytocin
• 11:24 Blood Brain Barrier
• 13:18 Dosing And Bishop Score
• 18:25 Nurse Monitoring And Titration
• 22:12 Contraction Goals And IUPC
• 23:49 Third Stage Pitocin Choice

About your host:

Lo Mansfield, MSN, RNC-OB, CLC is a registered nurse, mama of 4, and a birth, baby, and motherhood enthusiast. She is both the host of the Lo & Behold podcast and the founder of The Labor Mama.

For more education, support and “me too” from Lo, please visit her website and check out her online courses and digital guides for birth, breastfeeding, and postpartum/newborns. You can also follow @thelabormama and @loandbehold_thepodcast on Instagram and join her email list here.

For more pregnancy, birth, postpartum and motherhood conversation each week, be sure to subscribe to The Lo & Behold podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you prefer to listen!

A request: If this episode meant something to you, would you consider a 5 star rating and leaving us a review? Yes, we read them, and yes, they help keep L & B going! ♥️

Connect with Lo more on: INSTAGRAM | TIK TOK | PINTEREST | FACEBOOK

Disclaimer

Opinions shared by guests of this show are their own, and do not always reflect those of The Labor Mama platform. Additionally, the information you hear on this podcast or that you receive via any linked resources should not be considered medical advice. Please see our full disclaimer here.

Additionally, we may make a small commission from some of the links shared with you. Please know, this comes at no additional cost to you, supports our small biz, and is a way for us to share brands and products with you that we genuinely love.

Produced and Edited by Vaden Podcast Services

Mentioned in this episode:

YBYB 20% off ad link

I can almost guarantee, maybe 1,000% certainty, so absolute guarantee that you have heard conversations about Pitocin and it has come up at some point in your prenatal care, during your labor, or it will come up.

So my goal in this episode is to just give you some foundational information.

This is not an episode telling you whether you should or should not use Pitocin.

I'm not going to do that.

I just want to give you eight things to help you understand it more, and then you're going to walk away and you're going to go, okay, I understand Pitocin a little more deeply and I'm going to be able to make better choices about it.

Motherhood is all consuming.

Having babies, nursing, feeling the fear of loving someone that much.

And there's this baby on your chest and boom, your entire life has changed.

It's a privilege of being your child's safest space and watching your heart walk around outside of your body.

The truth is, I can be having the best time being a mom one minute, and then the next time questioning all my life choices.

I'm Lo Mansfield, your host of the Low and Behold Podcast.

Mama of four littles, former labor and postpartum RN, CLC, and your new best friend in the messy middle space of all the choices you are making in pregnancy, birth, and motherhood.

If there is one thing I know after years of delivering babies at the bedside, and then having, and now raising those four of my own, it is that there is no such thing as a best way to do any of this.

And we're leaning into that truth here.

With the mix of real life and what the textbook says, expert insights and practical applications, each week we're making our way towards stories that we participate in, stories that we are honest about, and stories that are ours.

This is the Low and Behold podcast.

If you are pregnant right now, if you are ever going to be pregnant, if you have already been pregnant, I can almost guarantee, maybe 1000% certainty, so absolute guarantee, that you have heard conversations about Pitocin and it has come up at some point in your prenatal care, during your labor, or it will come up, right?

Pitocin can be a very spicy topic, and I get it.

I understand those nuances.

I understand the sides of the story.

My goal for you in this episode is that I want you guys to just understand it at a really practical level.

I almost wanna remove the spice from it, if that makes sense, right?

I don't want it to feel so overwhelming.

I don't want it to feel like something you absolutely could never do, or you're definitely gonna do and you think everyone's being ridiculous.

I want you to just understand it, right?

So that then you can make decisions inside of these, again, what feel like spicy conversations, right?

And you can just feel really thoughtful about them, right?

You can feel actually really educated and you go, " Hey, I know what this is.

We've talked about this before.

I remember that podcast with Lo, and I remember what we talked about in there, and that makes sense, and I'm gonna apply this in this decision or this, you know, process or part of my labor right now too."

This is not an episode telling you whether you should or should not use Pitocin.

I'm not going to do that.

I do not ever do that, and y'all already know that, right?

I'm not gonna do it about any topic.

It is what I always want for you guys, is that understanding so you get to decide what to do.

Pitocin can be used for several reasons during labor.

It gets used during postpartum.

I want you guys to understand that process.

I want you to understand it.

So my goal in this episode is to just give you some foundational information for all those conversations, for all of those different kind of possibilities.

You do not have to make a decision about Pitocin today after you listen to this next 20 minutes.

You are just going to have information that you can use when you are in a place where it's time to make a decision.

So we are not doing a deep dive into every possible Pitocin scenario, why it might be needed, who does or doesn't need it, should you say yes or should you say no.

I just wanna give you eight things to help you understand it more, and again, we're just talking about practically.

What are some clinical things that I can pass on to you?

What are some things the nurse knows that they could pass on to you?

Maybe they won't, but I can do that, right?

So that is the goal.

Eight things and then you're gonna walk away and you're gonna go, "Okay. I understand Pitocin a little more deeply, and I'm gonna be able to make better choices about it."

So first thing is just this idea of, wait, what's Pitocin?

And if you're-- again, I know that most people do know what Pitocin is, but if you are kind of wondering, what is the big deal, right?

Like, give me a little more info.

Pitocin is the most commonly known labor induction medication kind of around the world, right?

It is the most frequently used.

The Pitocin is the brand name for synthetic oxytocin.

So Pitocin is a fake oxytocin.

It is also known as Syntocinon in other countries.

If you were to get into any research about it, you'll see that name potentially depending on, you know, where the research originated from as well.

Oxytocin is one of your big labor-making hormones, right?

You've probably heard of it in that regard or in that relationship.

So Pitocin is supposed to supplement that hormone in the body, right?

So it's supposed to do what oxytocin is doing.

Hence, synthetic, right?

Just a fake oxytocin.

When Pitocin is being administered during labor, it is to induce or it is to augment you, and those are technically two different things.

I want you to listen to episode fifty-nine and episode sixty where we talk about labor induction, augmentation, a lot of these terms that get thrown around in the Pitocin conversation.

Those episodes are really gonna help support you in any of those Pitocin conversations too.

So again, Pitocin can be used to induce or it can be used to augment your labors.

The medication is given via pump-controlled IV infusion.

We're gonna get into that more.

When Pitocin is running, you are continuously monitored, both contractions and baby's heart rate.

And then also Pitocin is standardly given after birth.

This is the recommendation of many different governing bodies, including the World Health Organization, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, that's ACOG, here in the United States, and it is given to help in the prevention of postpartum hemorrhage, which is excessive postpartum bleeding.

We expect some bleeding during postpartum.

That's a very normal physiological part of birth.

We do not want excessive bleeding, any sort of hemorrhage after birth.

So Pitocin is recommended to be given in that third stage of labor to help prevent those hemorrhages.

That Pitocin that's given after birth, it can be given like we already mentioned, or it can actually be given intramuscularly as well for those who don't have an IV.

Sometimes it gets given both ways in situations where we do need more of it.

So IV or IM are the two ways that it can be given.

So a quick conversation on risks of Pitocin, and I know this is where there is a lot of conversation, right?

And this is where a lot of the spice is.

It's valid, and it's real.

We're just gonna kind of walk through those quickly and then get to some of those practical eight things that I want you to know, right?

Okay, so when it comes to the risks, too many contractions, that's called tachysystole.

This can lead to changes in baby's heart rate.

So a lot of times we would see some sort of stress.

So it doesn't always happen, but I'm saying when we say it could lead to changes in baby's heart rate, what they are saying is you might then see some deceleration, some sort of response to stress, right?

So too many contractions, the baby starts to feel it.

That's a very kind of basic way to say it.

Other known risks of labor induction, I pulled these right from ACOG's website as well, is chorioamnionitis, which is an infection of the amniotic fluid, placenta, kind of the membranes, all the stuff that the baby's sitting in, right, while we're waiting for them to be born.

Infection for the baby then.

Sometimes chorioamnionitis also leads to some sort of infection for baby as well, so all of those things can get infected, the fluids, the membranes.

Baby can get that infection as well.

And then rupture of the uterus, which is where the uterus actually, let's say, breaks open, or if we're talking about a VBAC, which is that vaginal birth after cesarean, in that TOLAC process, it would be that the uterus often ruptures along the old incision line.

So that is another risk, true after someone has had a cesarean, but also a rare but possible risk just in general that the uterus can rupture.

And there is also a known association, but not causal, and I know that that's kind of annoying verbiage, right?

But there is an association between Pitocin induction and then cesarean birth.

But we do not have causative information that says, "If you do this, you will have a C-section." What we have in this conversation is the discussion really of almost more of the chain of interventions and how that can be part of the cesarean birth, right?

And so if we have Pitocin, it can change your pain needs, so then you get an epidural, and then that can change some sort of labor progress, things that can then lead to that cesarean birth.

There is research that shows it's dependent on the amount of Pitocin used, whether you're in spontaneous labor or induction, things like that, right?

So there are associations between Pitocin and cesarean birth But not this direct causal link that we can absolutely say this causes this.

But definitely cesarean birth and how it is part of this process is tied up in the spice of this conversation and the whether or not it should be used.

So that was the first point, kind of a big overview, but I wanted you to have that foundational stuff, particularly if you are kind of like, "I didn't know any of this." Okay?

So you can see pitocin has pros and cons.

Obviously, if we need you to be in labor or support your labor, this can be really valuable.

But there's also implications to using pitocin, as there are with most induction medications or most interventions or interruptions in labor, right?

Okay, so number two, I just wanna talk about this idea of pitocin versus oxytocin, not that we're putting them at war against each other, but just to understand their differences.

So I mentioned pitocin is synthetic or like a fake oxytocin.

So natural oxytocin, this is what your body makes.

It's made by the brain's pituitary gland.

It's released in natural kind of more pulsing waves.

It helps start and grow your labor contractions, strengthen them, right?

It can help your milk come in.

It crosses the blood-brain barrier and helps lower stress and ease pain.

It helps with love and bonding.

You've probably heard of it called the love hormone as well, something like that.

It helps support that bleeding after birth, causing that uterus to contract.

Okay?

That is, quote-unquote, "natural oxytocin," the man-made, the body stuff.

Pitocin, which is obviously synthetic, made in a lab, is given through an IV.

We mentioned that.

It is used to start, speed up, strengthen labor and induction augmentation.

We've mentioned that as well.

It doesn't cross the blood-brain barrier.

We're gonna get into that more.

It can cause stronger or closer together contractions.

It does require that monitoring.

It can help support your bleeding after birth, right?

So lots of crossover in those lists.

That's the point, right?

Pitocin is supposed to do what oxytocin does.

I think it's important to understand that it is not the same thing, even though you'll find that the, the bag is labeled oxytocin, which has always bothered me a little bit because it is not actually oxytocin, though it is similar, though it does a lot of the same things like we just laid out.

So both pitocin or oxytocin, they act on receptors on your uterus.

This is great.

This is what we need.

So it tells the uterus, "Hey, contract," right?

This is the point.

This is why we're often using this pitocin.

So the pitocin hits those receptors and encourages the rhythmic contractions we are hopeful for that then cause labor dilation, right?

Moving us toward the vaginal birth of your baby.

Like I said, induction and augmentation, value for both of those.

It's not exactly the same thing, but it's just that idea of causing uterine contractions for whatever point in labor you are at.

So we've got this idea of both of them yell at the body, right?

" Hey, get into labor.

Stay in labor.

Be in labor.

Stronger labor." There's a ton of crossover there, and then both of them after birth can do the postpartum bleeding support, right?

We've got that Pitocin does not support the love, the bonding, or help with the body's natural pain relief.

So if you picked up on that, it doesn't have some of those additional capabilities, I'll say, that oxytocin has.

And that leads me to my next point, which I think is a big, maybe a part, not a big part, but definitely a part of the spice or the conversation, is that Pitocin does not cross the blood-brain barrier.

So that's my third point for you.

So what does that mean to you?

'Cause that's like, mm, science, right?

Pitocin doesn't cross the blood-brain barrier, which means, you might have just heard me say, it doesn't support or help with your body's natural pain relief.

So this is a cool thing that oxytocin does.

So when you have high levels of natural oxytocin in your body, those cross your blood-brain barrier, they reach the pituitary, and they cause endorphin release.

And you probably know endorphins are feel-good hormones, right?

They make us feel better.

And in labor, they help show up and support our body in labor.

So it's like this natural pain reduction system in our body.

It's a really cool thing about labor.

It's one of the reasons why some people like to talk about and pursue pain-free labor, right, is this idea of your body supports you in this process, right?

And so when we get those en- that endorphin release, your body's saying, " Hey, let me help.

Let me help.

You're going through something really hard." Very specific to labor pain.

So I do think it's really, really cool Pitocin does not cross the blood-brain barrier, right?

And so it doesn't kick over-- The pituitary doesn't release those endorphins.

The body isn't helping or supporting you kind of in the painful process of labor the same way that it would be if it was natural oxytocin acting on and kind of doing its work for your labor, right?

So this leads into that conversation of, are Pitocin contractions more painful?

Is that type of labor more painful?

I am going to do another episode on that, and I want you to listen to it.

It will be the very next one.

It'll be episode sixty-nine, and we're gonna deep dive just that question of, is Pitocin labor, are those Pitocin contractions more painful?

But it is rooted in this, this number three, right?

This idea of Pitocin doesn't cross the blood-brain barrier, and that can have implications for your labor.

So something for you to understand, again, while you are prepping.

Okay, number four, Pitocin is dosed and given in very specific ways, okay?

So the first thing I want you to know, you gotta know your Bishop score.

So your care team is going to talk about that or throw that term around before they start Pitocin, or they should be, right?

This involves having a cervical check.

This involves figuring out what that check is, calculating a number, deciding how ready your body is for labor, what the implications are for your labor.

Episode fifty-nine, we deep dive this, okay?

So again, back to episode fifty-nine.

Listen to that so you understand how this plays into the Pitocin conversation and the bigger induction conversation.

If we're starting Pitocin, if it is time, if your Bishop score is favorable, whatever's going on, Pitocin is absolutely meant to be run on a pump and titrated.

So what that means is it is incrementally turned up after a specific time interval to get you to an adequate contraction pattern.

So we don't just hang an IV line and kinda let it flow in.

There's a really specific protocol that's being followed here for how often it can be turned up, what the parameters are for whether or not it can be turned up, and typically what a maximum dosage is.

Pitocin is given in milliunits.

You don't really have to know that.

And usually, there's some sort of protocol, like RN may turn up Pitocin by one to two milliunits every thirty minutes if XYZ is true about the baby's heart rate and the contraction pattern, right?

And so there's this full kind of checklist that an RN is paying attention to, making note of each time they're in and out of your room, in and out chatting with you, and potentially turning the Pitocin up, and then certainly before they are turning it on to even get it started as well So my hospital did not go higher than 20 milliunits, and we did turn up every one to milliunits every 30 minutes.

That was our protocol.

That's a pretty conservative protocol.

There are hospitals that can go higher.

I have seen protocols where you're allowed to turn it up every 15 to 30 min- I've seen some differences, which I share with you to say not that ours is the best and everyone else who's not doing it the way is doing it badly.

I simply share with you to say that that spectrum, that each protocol isn't exactly the same or that there's some fluidity inside of it tells me as a nurse and then tells me to tell you as a parent that you can ask questions about this, that this is not a concrete absolute, "This is how we do it. This is how we are doing it for you."

That there can be some conversations here so that you can know that and you can advocate if you're thinking, "Could we start it a little slower? Could we wait and give me 60 minutes because I'm feeling XYZ way and I would like to pursue this right now?" Okay?

I want you to hear that autonomy within these protocols can exist and that you can be a part of those conversations.

One thing that a lot of my students like to ask, one thing we talk about inside of the induction course is this idea of low and slow Pitocin.

Is that something that you might want because the idea of a lower, slower start lines up with your pain goals or it lines up with what's going on in your labor.

Again, this goes back to that conversation of just you can have autonomy inside of this because there is a little bit of a spectrum here of how this can be used, how it can be turned up This leads us into the fifth thing I want you to know, which is that the Pitocin life of the medication is very short.

So if you've heard of life or half-life, it's just talking about how long a medication is kind of actively working inside of the body.

Some are really long-term, right?

Some are very short-term.

Some are in between.

Some kick in 40 minutes after you orally take one.

It, it depends on the medication, but the life of Pitocin is really short.

And so if it seems like Pitocin is causing issue, if there's something going on with baby's heart rate, when you turn it off, you know, just turn that pump off, it's out of the body within about three to five minutes, which is a great benefit of this medication if you were to be having issues.

it's a lot better in this regard, in this regard, right, as compared to like a Cytotec or a Cervidil, and those are discussed in episode 59 and 60, those two induction episodes I've mentioned to you a couple times, where we talk about the different types of induction meds, of which obviously Pitocin is one.

And those ones have longer lives, right?

You can't just immediately get them out of the body.

One benefit of Pitocin is that you can if you were going to need to.

Hey friend, quick pause for just a second.

If you are listening to this podcast because you wanna feel more prepared, more confident, and less freaked out about birth, that is exactly why I created the Your Body, Your Birth course.

This birth course will not tell you what kind of birth you should want, and nobody has the right to do that.

It is about helping you understand what's happening in your body, what your options actually are, and how to walk into your birth feeling grounded, excited, ready, instead of overwhelmed and scared.

When you have education like this, everything changes.

Your mindset, your conversations with your care team, and the birth experience itself.

No more relying on random opinions, okay?

Stop scrolling.

Take intentional action with me and start trusting your body, your voice, and your decisions today.

Head over to www.thelabormama.com/birth, also linked in your show notes, and be sure to use the code podcast at checkout to save 20% and start working towards this better birth for you right now.

Okay, let's get you back to the episode.

Okay, number six and number seven I kind of put under this blanket umbrella of Pitocin and the RN and what I think you should know about this.

So I've already talked about Pitocin can be stressful to some babies or cause stress to a baby or cause change to a baby's heart rate at some point in their labors, right?

This is why we do the continuous monitoring to pay attention to them and to pay attention to your contraction pattern.

Your RN is watching your strip constantly, okay?

That is the job of the particularly when you have Pitocin running.

And what happens is that essentially we can see, I'm air quoting here, but "stress" inside of our babies sometimes on these heart rate monitors.

And so we can start to see things that indicate, hey, I'm not loving what's going on right now, right?

And so if your RN sees those things, if you remember back to the protocols I was speaking about a couple minutes ago, they can not turn things up.

They can decide to kind of sit and wait for a minute.

They can turn Pitocin down or off certainly, depending on what they're seeing.

And so that fetal heart rate strip, the work that they are doing, is really valuable in this decision of, hey, what's going on next?

What should we do?

So you can bring questions to them because they are very privy to, they are very in tune with what's going on, what they think is possible next.

There's a lot of independence there The RN can also hold off on turning it up if they see something that makes them want to pause for a few minutes, right?

And so you can have convos with them if there's a personal thing going on, like that, 'Hey, can we take a break?' that I mentioned, or they can pause be- again because of what they were seeing, like I was just laying out.

There are specific protocols for turning it back on when it has been turned off.

I just think that's helpful for you to know as well.

If you were to have it on, they turned it off for some reason, and then they wanted to turn it back on, sometimes it depends on how long it's been off at what rate you can then start it.

We had some certain rules about if it'd been off for 15 minutes, we could turn it back on at half.

If it'd been off for more than 30 minutes, we had to start back at zero, so different things going on in that process.

And then you also have the right to kind of ask if it can be turned off completely and if your body can take over.

This is rare.

I did not see this happen very often, but that does not mean it cannot happen So just want you to hear that.

It's not a nurse-only decision.

This would be a, " Hey, I have this great contraction pattern.

I've been in great labor for the last few hours.

What about turning the Pitocin off or cutting it in half and seeing if my body takes over?" That type of conversation you could have with your nurse.

They could then call the care provider, that OB or midwife, chat through that with them.

And some people just want the shot of saying, " Hey, let's get this Pitocin out of the body, and let's let my oxytocin fully do its thing." So definitely something you can talk to as well, understanding that the RN knows what's going on with that titration, and then they can call your care provider, and you guys can have that conversation together as well.

Last thing I would mention when it comes to kind of this continuous monitoring and this titration that we're talking about and that RN is that sometimes the decision is actually made to also completely turn the Pitocin off because it's not working.

Or maybe we're in a long three-day induction at 36 weeks because of some sort of preterm issue or hypertensive issue.

This baby needs to come out, right?

So we are inducing.

It's been long.

It's been hard.

That can be so normal, and it just doesn't seem to be working.

I had one of my best friends, who's also a labor nurse, have this happen in her labor.

Turned it off.

She got up.

She ate.

She took a shower.

And about 12 hours later, truly, they started it again, and the hope was that those oxytocin receptors, those receptors that also receive the Pitocin, that they would empty out, right?

And then we could saturate them again, fill them again.

The uterus would respond more effectively, and that the induction would go better from that point.

It worked.

It is a possibility, so sometimes that might become part of the conversation.

And if that comes up for you, just wanted you guys to know that that could be a thing.

Okay, so number seven, when it comes to kind of that RN and what are they looking for, I mentioned this briefly, but they're looking at that contraction pattern as well.

So we just talked about heart rate, things they're doing there.

And the goal with Pitocin, kind of a overriding goal, is just that you are contracting every two and a half to three minutes, that those contractions are effective and adequate, and that they are causing your cervix to change, right?

And so that is the general goal for that.

If- There are too many contractions seen, like we just talked about.

The RN can turn this off as that will often lead to issues for baby, right?

So we could turn it off, we could turn it down.

Again, that's called tachysystole.

We mentioned that in the initial risk conversation, right?

That that is a possibility with Pitocin.

So turning it off, turning it down, getting some of that out of the body can be really helpful in that.

The other thing I like to throw in here, too, and we deep dive internal monitors inside the Your Body, Your Birth course and then talk about them more inside of the induction course that's part of the birth course, but is the intrauterine pressure catheter.

So that's one of those internal monitors that can go inside and help monitor what's going on during labor.

Sometimes when we're using Pitocin, that IUPC becomes part of the conversation because that is the tool that can actually tell you how strong a contraction is.

So this tool or the IUPC goes inside the uterus if your waters have been broken, and it can literally tell you the strength of the contraction.

And so sometimes if you're having a really good contraction pattern but you're just not making progress with that Pitocin, the IUPC could actually be inserted and it can tell you, "Oh, these aren't very strong." And then that might be a way that the team says, "Okay, we can continue to turn them up because these are not very strong."

So just a tool that might be part of the conversation when it comes to Pitocin, its use, its effectiveness as well.

The last thing, we're gonna jump to that third stage Pitocin.

So you remember I mentioned that Pitocin is given standardly in hospitals after birth to help in the prevention of postpartum hemorrhage.

Pitocin during labor And Pitocin after labor in this third stage.

Those are different choices.

And I want you to just hear that because I think a lot of times we think, "I absolutely do not want Pitocin," and we're largely thinking about it for labor induction, and then we kind of apply that to the third stage of labor and that Pitocin.

And while they are the same medication, don't hear me wrong on that, the decisions that we're making in these different scenarios are different.

And so I would just encourage you not to say, "I am not using Pitocin at all in my labor," also apply that to postpartum without understanding what that third stage Pitocin is really used for, and then what the Pitocin is supposed to be doing in labor and in different labor scenarios.

Okay?

So with all the education, with all the teaching, I mean, this is always gonna be my goal for you, right?

Is that you don't just kind of make these blanket choices and apply it across the board, that you're understanding the nuance.

So do not make a decision about Pi- Pitocin during your labor and then immediately apply the same decision to Pitocin after labor.

Okay?

Look at the nuances of both of those.

I do have an episode on the third stage of labor with Miri Holiday.

I cannot remember the episode number, but I will drop it in the show notes, and we go through the third stage of labor.

We talk about Pitocin for this third stage.

Great one to listen to if you want more on how to make that choice.

What's the big deal about Pitocin after birth as well?

So definitely, you know, download that one and tuck it into the future learning or the listening that you're gonna do here.

All right.

So that was the eight things that I think will just help you show up so much more educated in these Pitocin conversations.

If there is one thing that I want you to take away from this episode, it is just that I want you to know that knowing about Pitocin doesn't mean you have to use it or you will use it.

We're not predicting now that this is something you have to do.

Right?

This is about preferences for your labor, understanding tools for your labor, how you can put all of it together.

None of this information was meant to tell you what the right choice is for you.

Those choices change throughout different labor scenarios, throughout different postpartum scenarios.

So I cannot even give you the information to tell you what the right thing is to do.

My hope is, is that you take it in, and then you are able to apply it in your scenario and understand, "Oh, this is the way that I want to move.

These are the things I know to be true, and these are the things I'd like to see next." Right?

Informed consent reminder in all of this, when Pitocin comes up at whatever point, because it will probably come up in almost every single one of our births, especially if we consider third-stage Pitocin as well.

You are allowed to ask questions like, " Why are you recommending it right now?

What are we hoping it will accomplish?

If we don't do it, what would happen?

Do I have alternatives?" Whatever those questions are that you're holding, throw them out there.

Okay?

This is an informed consent conversation.

Even when you think, "Yeah, that's probably what I need," ask these questions so you feel really autonomous and a part of that conversation Like I said, my job here is not to make the decision for you.

You don't have to know exactly what you're going to choose ahead of time, and I would say you probably shouldn't right now.

But you can have this information to pull out and use in that time of need.

Ultimately, you do not have to be pro-pitocin or anti-pitocin, and you know it will never be about that for me.

You just deserve to understand what it is.

That was the goal of this, so you can participate in the conversations when the time comes