The postterm pregnancy has usually been defined on the bases of 42 completed weeks of gestation from the first day of the last menstrual period. There have been increasing concerns in postterm pregnancies because they are associated with a
significant
increase in perinatal morbidity and mortality. Although the management of postterm pregnancies remains cotroversial, there is reasonable concensus that induction of labor should be employed when the cervical status is favorable. And so much
research
effort has been spent to develope safe and effective methods of cervical ripening and induction of labor. Among them stripping the menbranes, laminaria tents, Foley catheter, nipple stimulation, relaxin, prostagrandin derivatives are suggested as
methods of cervical priming techniques, and stripping of menbranes, smniotomy, acupuncture, PG derivatives, relaxin, decadron, oxytocin as those of induction of induction of labor. But both prostagrandin E2 and dilute intravenous remain the
cervical
priming and labor induction agents of choice, respectively.
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