Oxytocin and Fetal Heart Rate Changes

Launched by UNYIME ITUK · Jul 25, 2017

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

This clinical trial is studying how adjusting the amount of a medication called oxytocin could affect the heart rate of a baby during labor. When women receive pain relief through a method called neuraxial analgesia (like an epidural), there can sometimes be concerns about the baby's heart rate. Researchers believe that by reducing the oxytocin infusion rate by half before starting this pain relief, they might be able to lower the chances of the baby experiencing abnormal heart rate changes.

To participate in this trial, women must be healthy, at least 37 weeks pregnant with a single baby, and planning to use neuraxial analgesia for pain relief during labor. They should also be receiving oxytocin to help with labor. However, women who take certain pain medications regularly, have had specific types of labor pain relief already, or have other complications may not be eligible. If you choose to participate, you can expect to help researchers understand better ways to support healthy outcomes for both mothers and babies during labor.

Gender

FEMALE

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• • Healthy nulliparous or multiparous women at term (37 \> weeks' gestation)
• • Singleton pregnancy
• • Request for neuraxial analgesia
• • Oxytocin used for induction of labor or augmentation of labor per institutional protocols
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • Use of chronic analgesic medications
• • Prior administration of systemic opioid labor analgesia
• • Non-vertex presentation
• • Contraindication to neuraxial analgesia
• • Category 3 fetal heart rate tracing prior to the initiation of combined spinal epidural analgesia