This is a great article on all the drugs that are used on laboring moms that have not been approved by the FDA for use during labor, delivery, or lactation. In other words, these drugs have not been tested on laboring moms, so we have no idea what the side effects could be.
Marsden Wagner, MD writes extensively on the off-label use of Cytotec for the induction of labor in his incredible book "Born in the USA." The result was a 28x higher rate of uterine rupture in VBACing moms, but rather than say, "Don’t use Cytotec to induce labor," ACOG came out saying that VBAC was dangerous. What is wrong with this picture? Women go to the hospital and hire OBs to manage their care because they trust them to "do no harm," yet these same women are used as subjects in an experiment without their informed consent.
You can read an article that Dr. Wagner wrote for Midwifery Today on Cytotec inductions here.
As my friend and colleague asked me yesterday over lunch, “what do you do?” My response was “give birth at home”.