Sweeping of Membranes for Induction of Labour in Low Risk Term Pregnancy

• Published in: Pakistan Armed Forces medical journal 2022-04, Vol.72 (2), p.658-661
• Main Authors: Pirzada, Hina, Shabir, Rabia, Ehsan, Ambreen, Tahir, Noreen, Saifuddin, Zainab, Fatima, Ambreen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Obstetrics; Pregnancy; Pregnant women
• ISSN: 0030-9648; 2411-8842
• DOI: 10.51253/pafmj.v72i2.6644

Objective: To determine the frequency of spontaneous labour in the swept and non-swept groups. Study Design: Quasi-experimental study. Study and Duration of Study: Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Hospital, SKBZ Hosp/AK CMH Muzaffarabad, from Nov 2019 to Apr 2020. Methodology: Patients were randomly divided into two groups (with lottery method). Group-A underwent a sweeping membrane while group-B was the control group. Spontaneous labour and other outcomes were observed in both groups. Results: A total of 250 women were included in the study. There were 125 women in each group. The mean age of women was 23.4 ± 1.3 years in swept-group and 24.5 ± 1.7years in the non-swept group. The swept-group showed a high frequency of spontaneous labour compared to the non-swept group (24.8% vs 15.2%, p=0.01). Swept-group showed less postpartum haemorrhage (p=0.001), pain (p=0.001), pre-labour membrane rupture (p=0.03) and admission to neonatal intensive care unit (p=0.01). Conclusion: Sweeping of the membrane is a safe and beneficial procedure for labour induction among low-risk term pregnant women. It is an effective procedure preventing women from reducing the incidence of post-term pregnancy with minimum complications.