[Impact of a Guideline for Management of Pregnancy beyond Term and its Influence on Clinical Routine]

Many international guidelines recommend induction of labour beyond 41 weeks to reduce perinatal morbidity and mortality. In 2010, a new German guideline with this recommendation was published. The aim of this study was to investigate whether this recommendation influenced clinical outcome.

All cases with induction of labour beyond 40 weeks in 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012 were examined. Multiple pregnancy and Caesarean section in the case history were exclusion criteria. The years before publication of the new German guideline (2008 and 2009) were compared with those afterwards (2011 and 2012) with regard to several outcome parameters like rate of labour induction, efficacy of induction of labour and foetal outcome.

After publication of the guideline there were more inductions of labour undertaken (300 [11.2%] vs. 472 [15.4%], p<0.0001) with less pregnancies beyond 42 weeks (9 [3%] vs. 5 [1%], p=0.0489). However, there was no difference concerning the efficacy of induction of labour, e. g., the ratio of Caesarean sections was not increased. There was no impairment of foetal outcome, in contrast, the ratio of postpartal admission to NICU was decreased (42 [14.2%] vs. 31 [6.7%], p=0.0006).

The new recommendation of the German guideline to induce labour beyond 41 weeks leads to more cases with induction of labour without any negative impact on its efficacy or foetal outcome.