How much pitocin do they get?

[loveslabor]

So RosyDoula's post in another thread about pitocin got me thinking about pitocin doses.

How often do the nurses tend to turn it up and how many knotches at a time?

With my mommas with pitocin, they start at around 6, and bump it up 6 every hour. The highest that one of my clients has gotten is 42, before she ended up in c-section. When I was on pit, I got up to 72 before she was born (2 bags running at 36).

[UtahDoula]

Let's be careful that we are using the same units here as we compare. They start at 6 WHAT? 6 ml/minute? 6 milliunits per hour? 6 miles per gallon?

Comparisons are useless unless you know you've comparing apples to apples.

[MindOverLaborDoulas]

Quote:

Originally Posted by UtahDoula 6 miles per gallon?

That made me chuckle!!

[loveslabor]

I *think* the machines are set up to show ml/hr.

[megananna22]

Quote:

Originally Posted by loveslabor I *think* the machines are set up to show ml/hr.

I forget the actual ratios but I know some go by 6's and some go by 2's, so we really do have to make sure we compare apples to apples. I'll have to go look this up.

Megan

[scarborogal]

Yeah that is a hard one. I believe ours is 6mls/hr and they go up by 2 every 30mins. But I've also seen another ratio in a different hospital and I can't remember what it was but it definitely wasn't what I stated above.

I can't remember the highest either.

K.

[RosyDoula]

At UofM, they start at 1/2 a miliunit, then 2 miliunits every 15 mins to a half an hour up to 20. Usually they stop though when a good contraction pattern starts (q 2-3 mins).