A traditional mechanical method of inducing labour in a pregnant woman may be as good as, if not better than, the latest treatments, it was claimed today.
Dutch researchers compared the use of the Foley catheter <! a tube and balloon> with a gel containing the hormone prostaglandin E2.
The Foley catheter was developed in the 1930s and enables doctors to inflate a balloon within the cervix, causing an effect similar to a baby’s head activating labour. But it has fallen out of favour for obstetric use amid fears it may increase infection risk.
But the latest research in the Netherlands has found fewer side-effects than with the E2 gel, according to a report in The Lancet.
Doctors randomly assigned more than 800 women to either of the two treatments. Use of the Foley catheter was linked to a significant reduction in the number of babies needing care in a neonatal ward – some 12 per cent compared with 20 per cent after use of the gel.
Women treated with the catheter also experienced a lower risk of infection than the others. But they had a slightly increased rate of caesarean section – 23 per cent compared with 20 per cent after gel treatment.
Researcher Dr Kitty Bloemenkamp, of Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, Netherlands, said: "We think that a Foley catheter should at least be considered for induction of labour in women with an unfavourable cervix at term.
"Because of low cost and easy storage of the Foley catheter, its use could be suitable for developing countries and low-resource settings."
Writing in the journal, Jane Norman and Sarah Stock, from Edinburgh University, UK, say: "These data should prompt a revision of the recommendation that mechanical procedures should not be used routinely for induction of labour."
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