Effect of elective induction on birth weight

The 1,250 Mayo Clinic obstetric deliveries for 1976 were reviewed and 73 elective inductions were identified. Sixty-three of these mothers were successfully matched by gravidity, parity, and age within 5 years with healthy women in whom delivery was spontaneous at term. The mean birth weight for the electively delivered infants was greater than that for the controls, but the difference was not statistically significant. Mean gestation and 1-minute Apgar scores were similar for both groups. The neonatal problems observed, with the exception of elevated bilirubin levels, did not seem to point to any special hazard of induction. Even though pregnancy is interrupted, elective induction, as practiced at the Mayo Clinic, was not shown to produce a systematic reduction in birth weight.