Induction of labour at 39 weeks

In January 2018, researchers from the Biostatistics Center at George Washington University presented an abstract from the results of A Randomized Trial of Induction Versus Expectant Management (ARRIVE) at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in the US (Grobman, 2018). The study found that caesarean section was less frequent in women who had an elective induction at 39 weeks (n=569; 18.6%) compared with those who had expectant management (n=673; 22.2%) (risk ratio=0.84% CI 0.76–0.93%).

The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that elective induction of labour at 39 weeks compared with expectant management among low-risk primiparous women reduced the risk of perinatal mortality and neonatal morbidity.

The researchers concluded that inducing labour at 39 weeks in low-risk primiparous women resulted in a lower instance of birth by caesarean section. They also concluded that there was no significant change in the frequency of a range of adverse perinatal outcomes, such as perinatal death, infection and hypoxic ischaemic encepalophathy.