Cathy Weeks wrote:


I'm not sure why so many doctors are inducing at 42 weeks these days -
Do they really think the woman wouldn't eventually go into labor on
her own? I really wonder what the risks are, and if they are
significant?

The risk of a bad outcome does go up after 42 weeks
according to studies, though fortunately such bad outcomes
are still blessedly rare. Of course, there are many possible
confounds with this sort of research. It's possible that
causality is mixed up or that research hasn't been looking
at all the right issues. I don't think the 42 weeks
induction recommendation is totally specious. That said, it's
not the most strongly supported recommendation in the
known universe either. It's an area that is really, really
tough to research, though. You've got really small numbers
(so it takes a very large study to catch enough cases),
it's already against standard practice (so it's tough to
randomize people to a wait-and-see policy), and we don't
know enough about what goes wrong when babies die in that
situation to even know what all the right things to look
at are.

Best wishes,
Ericka