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In the study that was cited in this article misoprostol was tested as a more practical means of inducing postdelivery contractions in women in developing countries, despite “troubling side effects.” Because most women need no intervention to cause the uterus to contract, why not wait a few minutes to see which of them will require the medication, instead of subjecting every single one of them to “severe shivering and fever”?

Dian Duchin Reed
Soquel, Calif.

Where drugs may not be available, why not use the natural approach to curb postpartum bleeding, namely, encourage breast-feeding? A baby’s suckling stimulates the mother’s flow of natural oxytocin. Low tech perhaps, but the methodology has been working for millennia.

Virgil H. Soule
Frederick, Md.