Disadvantages. Having an oxytocin drip means transfer to the delivery suite for those women planning to birth in a birth centre or at home. It also means needing the baby's heart rate continuously monitored, restricting the woman's mobility and ruling out the use of baths or showers for pain relief.
Pain relief. The use of oxytocin drip can increase the likelihood of the woman needing pain relief. This is because the contractions can increase in intensity rather quickly, and with the woman being less mobile (or restricted to the bed) the pain can be less tolerable. If the contraction pains do not build up slowly, the woman's body does not have a chance to release her natural
endorphins that may have been helping her when she was in established labour. For women who wish to avoid using pain relief, allowing about 30 - 40 minutes of intense contractions will often give their body time to produce more endorphins, making the pain more tolerable, and minimising the need for pain relief.
Hyperstimulation of the uterus. An oxytocin drip can occasionally overstimulate the woman's uterus, causing
tonic uterine contractions. This means the uterus is contracting 'too much'. The woman experiencing tonic contractions is not that common, but their occurrence will depend on the individual woman's sensitivity to the drug and / or whether she has laboured before. Women having their second, or subsequent labour, are much more responsive to oxytocin.
Over stimulation of the uterus is unpredictable, but can sometimes cause the woman's uterus to contract almost continuously, for several minutes. If this happens, the baby is not given any recovery time to obtain enough oxygen to tolerate the next contraction, causing them to become distressed. The mother can also be distressed, because she is experiencing constant, strong contractions.
In this circumstance the drip would be turned off, and the woman would be given oxygen (to help the baby).