Introduction & Objective: In developing countries, postpartum hemorrhage is one of the preventable causes of maternal mortality. The aim of this study is comparison of the effect of rectal misoprostol and intramascular syntometerine in the prevention of postpartum hemorrhage.

Materials & Methods: This study was a double blind randomized clinical trial and carried on 200 pregnant women referred to Shabiehkhani maternity center in 2010. The first group received 1ml intramuscular syntometrine and the second group received 600 µg misoprostol rectal suppository after placental delivery. The two groups were matched for confounding variables. All of the study subjects were followed up for 24hrs and their blood pressure, pulse rate, uterine tone, before and after delivery hemoglobin, need to additional uterotonic drugs and drug side effects were evaluated and the results were recorded in an information sheet. Finally all the data were entered into SPSS software and analyzed with statistical tests.

Results: The mean age of subjects was 25.61±4.75 years, mean gestational age was 38.8±1.2 weeks, and Mean neonatal birth weight was 3346.2±349.56 grams. The mean fall in hemoglobin level in misorostol group was significantly lower than in syntometrin group (P=0.009). But there weren't any significant differences between the two groups in uterine tone, blood pressure, and pulse rate and also in drug side effects.

Conclusion: In this study we demonstrated that rectal misoprostol suppository was more effective than injection syntometrin in decreasing postpartum hemorrhage. Thus, it can be used as a choice drug for third stage management