Women's evaluations of induction of labor versus expectant management for prelabor rupture of the membranes at term. TermPROM Study Group.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Oxytocin, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Induction of labor has become common practice in many Western countries, but few studies have assessed women's views.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults, women only.

Five thousand forty-one women meeting eligibility criteria, with no contraindications for induction of labor or expectant management, were randomly assigned to four groups: induction with intravenous oxytocin, induction with vaginal prostaglandin E2 gel, or expectant management followed by induction with either oxytocin or with prostaglandin E2 gel if complications developed.

The three main outcome measures were evaluations of the treatment received, perceived control during childbirth, and evaluations of the experience of trial participation.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized study.

Because people in this Oxytocin study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

A randomized, controlled trial was conducted at 72 hospitals in six countries.

What Was Measured

Induction of labor has become common practice in many Western countries, but few studies have assessed women's views.

The subject headings attached to it are Dinoprostone, Premature Rupture of Fetal Membranes, Labor, Induced, Oxytocics, Oxytocin and Patient Satisfaction.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Oxytocin.

Its findings take up roughly 7 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 1997 (Birth (Berkeley, Calif.)), a journal based in United States.

More context: the related Oxytocin library page, all human trials.