Stimulating labor

The labor provoking drug oxytocin (Syntocinon) is added to the drip, which would consist of 1L of salt or glucose water.

It is normal to start with a very small dose, which is then gradually increased.

The amount is regulated, depending on how easily the woman is affected by the dosage, and how well the baby can tolerate the artificial contractions in the uterus.

If an oxytocin-drip is used, it usually runs until about one hour after the placenta has been delivered. Bleeding is no more than would be expected after an ordinary birth.

Under what other circumstances is it used?

A drip is also used in pregnancy if there are other complications, such as:
dehydration
risk of premature birth
pre-eclampsia.
Dehydration

Dehydration is typically seen in connection with vomiting at the beginning of pregnancy. A drip is used to regulate the fluid balance.

To need a drip, you would have to vomit frequently, suffer from weight loss or be in a generally bad condition - not just suffer from nausea or morning sickness. This condition is called hyperemesis.

Risk of premature birth:

There is a risk of premature birth if you go into labor or your waters break before the 37th week of pregnancy.

A labor-repressing medication is added to the drip. This can be dosed in the exact amount that's required to stop the labor.

The drip typically runs for 24 hours; after this, treatment continues with pills.

Pre-eclampsia:

In cases of pregnancy poisoning (pre-eclampsia or eclampsia), your blood pressure may rise, you may accumulate fluids in your body (oedema) and there may be protein in your urine.

Pitocin Drip:

Pitocin is a synthetic form of oxytocin, which is the hormone that stimulates uterine contractions. It can be utilized either to induce or to augment labor. According to the authors of Williams Obstetrics, labor augmentation with pitocin is officially indicated when the clinical practitioner diganoses "hypotonic uterine dysfunction"--a condition in which the contractions of labor become ineffective at producing cervical dilation (Cunningham et al. 1989:344). Following this rationale, pitocin should be contraindicated in normal labors, and therefore should not even be included in my analysis. Yet, although Williams Obstetrics warns against its dangers (1989:345), it is commonly used in hospitals throughout the country to augment normal labors. 81% of the women in my study who gave birth in the hospital received pitocin during their labors. Harrison reports a statement by one of her professors in medical school: "If they were to put a dye in the pitocin, you'd see it in the IV of almost every woman in this country who is in labor" (1982:116).

Under the technocratic model, this near-universal use of pitocin for labor augmentation makes sense, as that model holds that labors do not stop and start again, so that any slowing of labor (as was quite common among the women in my study) is interpreted as abnormal or dysfunctional, necessitating intervention (Rothman 1982:260).

The technocratic model also interprets as dysfunctional labors that have not started by a maximum of two weeks past the official medical "due date," as well as labors that have not started after the waters have broken. In most hospitals, the rule is that once the membranes have ruptured, birth must take place within 24 hours, because the danger of infection (mostly from hospital interventions) rises dramatically after that. Under either of these circumstances, the physician will recommend induction of labor with pitocin.6 The woman and baby are then subject to all the dangers discussed below throughout the entire labor. If the due date is inaccurate (as frequently happens), such induction may result in the birth of a premature baby.