Induction of labour may be necessary when pregnancies reach 41 weeks of gestation.
Ripening methods include mechanical and pharmacological options and both are currently used in pregnancies that reach 41 weeks of gestation.
Mechanical cervical ripening leads to less uterine tachysystole and less fetal heart rate anomalies than pharmacological methods.
Whether mechanical methods are associated with reduced perinatal morbidity in prolonged pregnancies in comparison with pharmacological methods needed to be investigated by a sufficiently powered randomised trial.
What did the researchers do and find?
We conducted a trial to compare cervical ripening with a silicone double-balloon catheter (mechanical method) to cervical ripening with a vaginal dinoprostone slow-release system (pharmacological method) among women with prolonged pregnancies.