Transvaginal cervical length measurement and Bishop score in the prediction of successful induction of labor in postterm pregnancy

OBJECTIVE: To compare transvaginal cervical length measurement and Bishop score in the prediction of successful induction of labor in postterm pregnancy. Design: Prospective randomized analysis. Setting: Zekai Tahir Burak Women Health Care, Research and Education Hospital Patients: Eighty-eight women whose labor was induced for postterm gestation. Main Outcome Measures: Parity, Bishop score, transvaginal sonographic cervical length measurement. RESULTS: Fifty-eight women (65.9%) had vaginal deliveries and in 52 (89.6 %) of these, vaginal deliveries were within the 24 hours of labor induction. The group of patients who succeeded to deliver within 24 hours differed significantly from the remaining patients by a higher parity, higher Bishop scores (6.4 vs 2.3) and a shorter cervix (23.5±1.0 vs 33.8±3). However, logistic regression analysis showed that only the Bishop score (0.019) and parity (0.006) were independent tatistically significant predictors of the vaginal delivery within 24 hours of induction. CONCLUSION: In women undergoing labor induction for postterm gestation, only the Bishop score and parity predicted accurately the vaginal delivery within 24 hours