Clinical practice guideline on induction of labour and antenatal surveillance of the post-dates pregnancy

Abstract

Thomas Denman in 1756, at a meeting in London, suggested that induction of labour may be a useful treatment for cephalo-pelvic disproportion which was at the time, a common cause of maternal and foetal mortality. By 1788 induction of labour was met by general approval by the British Obstetric establishment. Thirty years later Rigby the Younger hailed induction of labour “as perhaps the greatest improvement in operative midwifery since the invention and gradual improvement of the forceps”. (Hibbard 2000). Note must be taken of the discretion this latter statement portrays, a reflection of erudite Obstetric caution. Obstetric caution is also required in modern day Induction of Labour whereby the rates of this obstetric intervention have increased substantially over the past twenty years. In the U.S. induction of labour, increased from 9.5 percent in 1990 to 22.1 percent in 2004. Similarly in 2004 and 2005, one in every five deliveries in the UK was induced (NICE CG70).