Induction (birth)

Induction is a way of artificially bringing on labourin a woman.

Common causes for induction include:

• The baby is believed to be getting too big
• Postdate pregnancy, i.e. if the pregnancy has gone past the 42 week mark
• Intrauterine fetal growth retardation(IUGR)
• There are health risks to the woman in continuing the pregnancy (e.g. she has preeclampsia)
• Premature rupture of the membranes(PROM); this is when the membranes rupture, but labour does not start within a specific amount of time.

Induced labour tends to be more intense and painful for the woman, often leading to the increased use of analgesicsand other pain-relieving phamaceuticals. This cascade of intervention has been shown to lead to an increased likelihood of caesarean sectiondelivery for the baby. See: Roberts, Tracy, Peat in references. Inductions should only be undertaken for significant medical reasons.

Methods of induction

Methods of inducing labour include:

• Artificial rupture of the membranes(AROM or ARM) ("breaking the waters")
• Cervical prostaglandingel, such as dinoprostone(Cervidil).
• Intravenousadministration of synthetic oxytocinpreparations, such as Pitocin.

If induction does not work, a Caesarean sectionmay be required.

References

Rates for obstetric intervention among private and public patients in Australia: population based descriptive study Christine L Roberts, Sally Tracy, Brian Peat, "British Medical Journal", v321:140 July 2000

External links

• Family.doctor.org
• Harman & Kim. "Current Trends in Cervical Ripening and Labor Induction" American Family Physician 1999; 60:477-84.
• Kripke. "Facts About Labor Induction" American Family Physician 1999; 60:484.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia article Induction (birth).