Oxytocin

Technical summary

Drug, level substance. RxCUI 7824 (RxNav name oxytocin, term type IN) and UNII 1JQS135EYN from the openFDA approved-drugs record for Pitocin (identifiers read 2026-10-14). The US Pitocin label (set id 6e5a66fc-e507-497c-b5ce-44a8c95898ad, version 15) lists use before birth to start or improve uterine contractions when this is desirable and considered suitable for reasons of fetal or maternal concern, in order to achieve vaginal delivery, with a boxed notice that it is not indicated for elective induction, and use after birth to produce contractions in the third stage of labour and to control bleeding. Labelled uses differ by country and only the US label was read. The 2025 postpartum haemorrhage guideline recommends oxytocin 10 IU for preventing postpartum haemorrhage in all births (Recommendation 7.1) and as the agent of choice when several uterotonics are available (Recommendation 10). The registry record of a large trial of induction at 39 weeks says its induction arm used oxytocin. No clinical claim sits on this page: the induction records and the bleeding-prevention record each hold the evidence for their own use.