[Evolution of actual methods for the induction of labour]

At first reserved for the most serious illnesses of pregnancy, the techniques of artificial induction of labour have seen their indications and methods modified with the passing years. This brief account tries to relate the course of some of these techniques still used to-day. Out of the mechanical procedures formerly imposed by the necessity to end quickly a dangerous labour or a dangerous pregnancy, only remains some adjuvant measures linked with medical treatments, which are nowadays universally and widely used. Perhaps the old dream to control the parturition is not so far off now to be a reality, but a shadow is becoming apparent: the temptation of a total control and of a limitless interventionism.