pitocin and oxygen

[Valerie RN, BSN]

At the facility I work at we frequently have oxygen and pitocin on at the same time. If the strip warrants turning pit off we definitely will, however, sometimes after an epidural or nubain or even with variable decels preceding pushing and with pushing having some oxygen on helps. I am curious what other nurses and facility's do about oxygen and pitocin together.

[CTRN1]

at our hospital we can not have pit and O2 on at the same time, it is part of policy and the doctors are aware of it, no exceptions

[CNM 26.2]

Oxygen and pitocin together are not contraindicated from a "drug interaction" standpoint. However, think about why you are using each drug, what it is doing and that will tell you if you should be using both. As mentioned before, if the baby is showing signs of distress (repetitive late decels, minimal or absent variablity) then you probably should be turning the pitocin off as well as giving the mom oxygen. Think about your intrauterine resusciation goals and what you are seeing on the montior. If you have lates and decreased variablity then you know the baby is not being oxygentated well-turning off the pitocin is one way to increase oxygenation to the baby because it will decrease uterine activity-supplemental maternal O2 may help also to improve oxygenation to the baby. Now, again, think about why you give O2-if baby is having variable decels, what is the physiology? Cord compression-will O2 help? No, you need to reposition mom, amnioinfuse, etc. I also often see when nurses use O2 for maybe a prolonged decel-which is indicated-but then the baby looks fine and they leave the O2 on for the remainder of labor. I also see nurses that put O2 on for variable decles without ever repositioning the patient. You really need to think about the physiology and what your goal is to improve the tracing.

OK, so that was a really long answer but the short version is-determine what you are using each drug for (and yes, oxygen IS a drug) and determine if both are indicated. I hope that helped.