ISSN: 2161-0932
Melese Gezahegn Tesemma, Demisew Amenu Sori, Desta Hiko Gemeda
Background: Very few studies are conducted to compare the relative efficacy and safety of high-dose and low-dose oxytocin regimens on maternal outcomes. This study was aimed at comparing maternal outcomes of high-dose vs low-dose oxytocin regimen among pregnant mothers undergoing labor induction.
Method and material: Comparative cross-sectional study was conducted in four selected hospitals of Ethiopian. All pregnant women fulfilling inclusion criteria were included. Collected data was entered into epidata version 3.1 and then exported to SPSS version 20 for cleaning and analysis. chi-square test, bivariate and multivariate logistic regression was done to look for association of independent variables with Adverse Maternal Outcomes (AMO). The result was presented using 95% Confidence Interval (CI) of Odds Ratios (OR). p-value<0.05 was used to declare statistical significance.
Result: Mean average length of hospital stay was 2 days and 2.7 days among mothers receiving high dose oxytocin and low dose oxytocin regimen respectively. Of all maternal outcome variables only, puerperal sepsis was significantly related with oxytocin regimens with prevalence of 5.6% and 0% (X2=0.015, P=0.029) among low dose group and high dose group respectively. Misoprostol use for ripening [AOR 4.7, 95% CI 1.6, 13.4] and Neonatal birth weight of >4 kg [AOR 3.4, 95% CI 1.1, 10.3] were found to be associated with adverse maternal outcome.
Conclusion: Oxytocin regimen has no significant association with adverse maternal outcome. However, low dose oxytocin use was associated with increased risk of puerperal sepsis and slightly longer duration of hospital stay.