An extract isolated from the pituitary posterior lobe which stimulates the uterine muscle to contract. Oxytocin produced by the PITUITARY GLAND stimulates the flow of milk in breast-feeding mothers. Its manufactured form is used to induce or assist labour in pregnancy and childbirth and also to encourage the expelling of the PLACENTA (afterbirth). Sometimes it is given to a woman who has had an incomplete miscarriage (see ABORTION). (See also PITUITARY BODY.)