Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast. My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be

talking to you about the induction of labour. And you can find written notes on this topic at

zero to finals.com slash induction or in the Labor and Delivery section of the Zero to Finals Ob obstetrics and gynecology book so let's get

straight into it induction of labour refers to the use of medications to stimulate the onset of labour

let's talk about the indications induction of labour can be used where patients go over their due date.

Induction of labour is offered between 41 and 42 weeks gestation.

It can also be offered where it's beneficial to start labour early, such as in pre-labour rupture of membranes, fetal growth

restriction, preeclampsia, obstetric colostasis, existing diabetes, and intrauterine fetal death.

Let's talk about the Bishop's score. The bishop score is a scoring system used to

determine whether to proceed with induction of labour. To calculate the bishop's score,

five things are assessed and given a score based on different criteria, with a minimum

score of zero and a maximum bishop score of 13.

The five things that are assessed are the fetal station scored 0 to 3.

Cervical position scored 0 to 2.

Cervical dilat, scored 0 to 3,

cervical effacement, which is how thin the cervix is, which is scored 0 to 3,

and cervical consistency, which is scored 0 to 2.

A score of 8 or more predicts a successful induction of labour. A score below this

suggests that cervical ripening may be required to prepare the cervix for induction, and we'll

talk in more detail about cervical ripening shortly. Let's talk about the options for induction

of labour.

A membrane sweep involves inserting a finger into the cervix to stimulate the cervix and begin the process of labour.

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