Oral misoprostol is as effective as intravenous oxytocin in labor augmentation

Oral misoprostol is an effective agent to augment labor compared with intravenous oxytocin, according to a study published recently in Obstetrics & Gynecology.

India has the largest number of births per year in the world, 27 million, with greater than 60% occurring at home, according to the World Health Organization.

In the recent study, researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in the United States evaluated 350 females in spontaneous labor who reached the active phase but did not progress. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either a standard oxytocin titration or up to...