The duration of the third stage in relation to postpartum hemorrhage.

The incidence of postpartum hemorrhage increases significantly from 10 to 19 minutes into the third stage. Women with the removal of the placenta had a significantly higher percentage of postpartum hemorrhage. The optimal timing for manual removal of the placenta should be investigated in a carefully designed randomized controlled trial to examine whether earlier manual removal of placenta lowers the incidence and limits the severity of postpartum hemorrhage.