Cervical ripening with foley balloon plus fixed versus incremental low-dose oxytocin: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate cervical ripening with foley balloon combined with a fixed vs. incremental low-dose oxytocin infusion. Methods: Women presenting for term labor induction were randomized to fixed low-dose or standard incremental low-dose oxytocin infusion following foley balloon placement. The primary outcome was time from foley balloon placement to delivery. Results: Among 116 subjects, there was no difference in median time to delivery among subjects receiving fixed low-dose vs. standard incremental low-dose oxytocin during induction of labor with a foley balloon (23.7 vs. 19.2 hours). There were no differences between the two groups in median time to foley bulb extrusion, active labor and second stage of labor or incidence of uterine tachysystole, fetal heart rate abnormalities, mode of delivery or maternal hemorrhage. Conclusions: There is no difference in median time to delivery in women undergoing cervical ripening with a foley balloon combined with a fixed low-dose or standard incremental low-dose oxytocin.

Keywords::

• Foley balloon
• labor induction
• oxytocin
• pregnancy

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. Ricardo Pietrobon and the Duke University Research on Research Group (http://researchonresearch.org) for assistance with statistical analysis.

Declaration of Interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest.