A recent systematic review (a study of studies) challenges current wisdom that inducing at 39 weeks reduces cesareans and improves newborn outcomes.5 Reviewers pooled data among 16 randomized controlled trials (studies in which participants are assigned by chance to...
“Routine medical interventions such as induction of labour, caesarean and forceps births without obstetric indication will increase the likelihood of maternal and newborn complications, increase the length of hospital stay and add to staffing burdens in hospitals, all...
For those of you struggling with the news sweeping the internet that a trial has definitively established that women should be routinely induced at 39 weeks, a new study offers push back. (FYI: I deconstructed the ARRIVE trial and its hidden assumptions for Science...
Abstract: Obstetrician-gynecologists . . . can help women meet their goals for labor and birth by using techniques that are associated with minimal interventions and high rates of patient satisfaction. Many common obstetric practices are of limited or uncertain...
The Stir picks up on a U Penn press release extolling a combo method of inducing labor that decreases labor duration by 4 hours compared with inducing with either of its components alone. I get why this is good for hospitals. Increasing throughput improves their...
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued a press release highlighting a study finding that planned cesarean or induction before 39 completed weeks increases the odds of developmental deficits at school age. Let’s look at the study in more detail, but let’s look...
“Our evidence suggests that mainstream obstetric science follows mainstream obstetric practice. A patient and expectant approach to birth…where all is considered normal until proved otherwise, produces a science that proves intervention to be unnecessary....
Science & Sensibility interviews Rebecca Dekker about her new “Evidence Based Birth” post on the issues of pregnancy and birth in women aged 35 or more. The interview provides an overview of the article’s contents along with context as well as Dekker’s suggestions...
Some months ago, Henci deconstructed the prepublication manuscript of a systematic review concluding that elective induction at 40 weeks had benefits and didn’t increase the cesarean rate for Science & Sensibility. Now the study has been published and is once...
Using a balloon catheter to ripen the cervix* in preparation for labor induction results in similar rates of cesarean, chorioamnionitis (inflammation of the fetal membranes), and low Apgar scores, and as with misoprostol, the cost is low. A Swedish study compared...
The first in Henci’s new Take Charge of Your Birth Series, Labor Pain: What’s Your Best Strategy? delivers up-to-date access to the best medical research plus practical strategies for developing your plan and putting it into action. Also available in audiobook.
