Postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) is commonly defined as a blood loss of 500 mL or more within 24 hours after birth and affects about 5% of all women giving birth around the world. Globally, nearly one quarter of all maternal deaths are associated with PPH and, in most low-income countries, it is the main cause of maternal mortality. Improving care during childbirth to prevent PPH is a necessary step towards the achievement of the health targets of the third Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 3), particularly target 3.

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reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100 000 live births by 2030. Efforts to prevent and reduce morbidity and mortality due to PPH can help to address the profound inequities in maternal and perinatal health globally. To achieve this, skilled health personnel, health managers, policy-makers and other stakeholders need up-to-date and evidence-informed recommendations to guide clinical policies and practices. In 2019, the Executive Guideline Steering Group (GSG) for the World Health Organization (WHO) maternal and perinatal health recommendations prioritized updating of the existing WHO recommendation: Umbilical vein injection of oxytocin for the treatment of retained placenta, in response to the availability of new evidence. The recommendation in this document thus supersedes the previous WHO recommendations on “intraumbilical vein injection of oxytocin for treatment of retained placenta” as published in the 2012 guideline, WHO recommendations for the prevention and treatment of postpartum haemorrhage. The primary audience for these recommendations includes health professionals who are responsible for developing national and local health-care guidelines and protocols (particularly those related to PPH prevention and treatment) and those involved in the provision of care to women and their newborns during labour and childbirth, including midwives, nurses, general medical practitioners and obstetricians, as well as managers of maternal and child health programmes, and relevant staff in ministries of health and training institutions, in all settings. The updating of these recommendations was guided by standardized operating procedures in accordance with the process described in the WHO handbook for guideline development. The recommendations were initially developed and updated using this process, namely: (i) identification of priority questions and outcomes; (ii) retrieval of evidence; (iii) assessment and synthesis of evidence; (iv) formulation of the recommendations; and (v) planning for the dissemination, implementation, impact evaluation and future updating of the recommendations. The scientific evidence supporting the recommendation was synthesized using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. An updated systematic review was used to prepare the evidence profiles for the prioritized question. WHO convened a meeting on 11–12 March 2020 where the Guideline Development Group (GDG) members reviewed, deliberated and achieved consensus on the strength and direction of the recommendation presented herein. Through a structured process, the GDG reviewed the balance between the desirable and undesirable effects and the overall certainty of supporting evidence, values and preferences of stakeholders, resource requirements and cost-effectiveness, acceptability, feasibility and equity. The GDG reviewed the balance between the desirable and undesirable effects and the overall certainty of supporting evidence, values and preferences of stakeholders, resource requirements and cost-effectiveness, acceptability, feasibility and equity. The GDG issued the new recommendation on umbilical vein injection (UVI) of oxytocin for the treatment of retained placenta, with remarks and implementation considerations. To ensure that the recommendation is correctly understood and applied in practice, guideline users may want to refer to the remarks, as well as to the evidence summary, including the considerations on implementation.