There's an
interesting report in the New England Journal of Medicine. Actually, the
research was done at Tulane and the University of North Carolina. They
worked together. What they found is teaching hospital staff in Uruguay
and Argentina might have better ways to deliver babies by reducing the
chances of the new mom experiencing significant blood loss and undergoing an
episiotomy. Here's what happened. The researchers worked with
hospital staff providing workshops and one on one training in order to promote
oxytocin use during labor and discourage episiotomies. An episiotomy is
an incision in the mother to aid the baby's exit. After the intervention
finished, even a year later, oxytocin use during labor was up 2% to 84%
and episiotomies were down 41% to 30%; gains that were not seen at hospitals
that did not have those interventions. Chances of blood loss decreased by
45% to 70%.
