Can augmentation with oxytocin be ‘too much, too soon’?

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals have specific aims to reduce maternal mortality and achieve gender equality. While a significant amount of literature focuses on lower-income countries, which have higher mortality and morbidity rates than the UK, the UK must not be complacent. Maternal mortality and morbidity can still be improved nationally by critically evaluating whether the almost ubiquitous use of interventions in obstetric units is a contributory factor. Labour augmentation with oxytocin is not without risk and this raises the question of why maternity care is not incorporated into the gender equality goals in the UK. At its most basic level, it could lead to a lack of informed consent but is influenced by the risk discourse, changing epidemiology of women and sociocultural norms.