The choice between death from postmaturity or prolapsed cord and life from induction of labour.

The commonest modern indication for the induction of labour is suspected placental deficiency, associated either with so-called pregnancy toxaemia or with postmaturity. There is, however, a revival of induction of labour for minor cephalopelvic disproportion, and not only in multigravidx (Drew Smythe 1949, Tennent and Black 1954, MacLennan 1954). The consultant staff of St. Luke’s Maternity Hospital, Mr. G. A. Craig, Mr. A. C. Muir, and myself, meet each month and agree in detail on hospital policy, particularly as it affects registrars and nursing staff, thus leaving latitude for the treatment of individual patients by each consultant. Weekly antenatal care and induction of labour are regarded as the main instruments of hospital policy. Believing that the risks associated with induction of labour are related more to the stage of pregnancy than to the reason for the operation, the patients have been divided into those induced before the 38th week, those between the 39th and 40th weeks, and those after the end of the 40th week of pregnancy. Adequate antenatal care should make it unnecessary, except in structurally defective women, to induce labour before the 38th week, and most of the cases reported here were emergency admissions. The figures have, moreover, been analysed