the use of breast stimulation to prevent postdate pregnancy

postdate pregnancy is estimated to occur in 3% to 12% of all gestations. morbidity and mortality rates associated with this common obstetric problem are higher than those with term gestation. the incidence of fetal distress, birth injury, meconium aspiration, congenital malformations, macrosomia, and oligohydramnios is also greater in postdate pregnancies. we prospectively evaluated breast self-stimulation to determine its effect on the incidence of postdate pregnancy. one-hundred uncomplicated patients at 40 weeks gestation were randomly assigned to either a control group or a breast-stimulation group. results showed that breast stimulation reduced the number of pregnancies managed as postdates from 22 per 100 (22%) to zero per 100 (p= 0.002). it is concluded that breast stimulation in postdate pregnancies can decrease significantly the number of patients that must be monitored by biochemical or biophysical means.