Medline ® Abstract for Reference 17

Twenty randomly selected birth centres were questioned about their oxytocic use in the third stage of labour and incidence of retained placenta in relation to the number of vaginal deliveries during 1987. Ten centres used either methylergometrine or oxytocin routinely. Of 6,906 vaginal deliveries treated with 0.2 mg methylergometrine immediately after birth, 187 (2.7%) were complicated by retained placenta. Significantly fewer (p less than 0.001) of the 10,680 vaginal deliveries treated with 5-10 IU oxytocin were complicated by retained placenta (n = 192; 1.8%).