I am not a medical person — my role in the delivery room as a doula is waist up. However, as I read the research on clean birth kits and birth-related mortality, I am constantly looking medical things up.
As I read more about birth complications and the deadly consequences for mothers and babies, I keep looking back to the leading killers. Hemorrhage tops the list. OK. What can be done? Oxytocin isn’t the answer in the developing world because it needs refrigeration and must be administered by trained personnel. But Misoprostol might just be.
Misoprostol, an oral preparation of prostaglandin (PGE1) analogue, is a prime candidate given its uterotonic properties; ease of use as an oral, vaginal, or rectal preparation; relative low cost in some areas; and stability at high temperature.
Read on http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/484023_5:
and here http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3303907b.html
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