ACOG Revises Labor Induction Guidelines

Midwives are applauding the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) latest revision to their labor induction guidelines. The new ACOG practice bulletin recommends avoiding labor induction before week 39 of pregnancy—an improvement over the previous 37-week recommendation.

This comes on the heels of more good news: a recent study at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston found that 10-year episiotomy rates have steeply declined, thanks to peer pressure to stop performing the procedure as well as significant research on the topic. A Medscape article also says that researchers acknowledge "several other contributing factors, including long-standing CNM service in hospital-based practice, and the addition of CNMs to Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates in 1990."

Midwives may be blue in the face from their decades of trumpeting the need for judicious use of interventions, but it looks like their music has not fallen on deaf ears.