In spite of the large diffusion of uterotonic drugs some doubts persist about which preparation and which dosage are the most suitable. For such a reason a group of pregnant women, to whom ergometrine maleate was administered at the delivery of the anterior shoulder of the fetus, was compared by the authors to an analogous group formed by pregnant women to whom oxytocin was administered under the same conditions. Pregnant women not submitted to a pharmacologic control of the third stage of labour served as a control group. Each study group was thereafter divided into 2 subgroups: the former is composed by patients submitted to episiotomy and the latter by patients not submitted to this procedure. Our results have shown the usefulness of both drugs in the active management of the third stage of labour, whereas different side effects may occur.