Induced Labor May Prevent Need for Cesarean Section
TUESDAY, Aug. 18 (HealthDay News) -- Inducing labor doesn't necessarily increase the risk of Cesarean section delivery, according to a study that challenges the widely held opinion.
Researchers reviewed available data on elective induction, in which women choose to have labor induced rather than requiring it for medical reasons. Most of the studies included women who were about one week past their due date.
The review results suggest that, compared with waiting, elective induction of labor at or after 41 weeks' gestation lowered Cesarean delivery risk by 22 percent. In addition, women whose labor was electively induced were half as likely to have meconium-stained amniotic fluid, which is a sign of fetal intrauterine stress.
The findings suggest that elective induction of labor may be safer than continuing pregnancy past 41 weeks, according to the researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine and University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Their study appears in the Aug. 18 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
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