Oxytocin, a medication given to stimulate labor is also used to prevent hemorrhage or bleeding after birth. New research is showing that using oxytocin regularly after natural birth reduces the total amount of blood loss and reduces the risk of hemorrhage.
You can read more about this in the article New Training for Doctors to Reduce Postpartum Bleeding, which also discusses the efforts to reduce episiotomies, or the surgical cutting of tissue between the vagina and the anus in an attempt to prevent tearing as the baby is born.
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