Maternal and perinatal outcomes of induction of labor in oligohydramnios at term-a retrospective cohort study

Objective: To evaluate the maternal and perinatal outcomes of labor induction in women at term with oligohydramnios. Methods: A retrospective cohort of women with a singleton pregnancy, who had oligohydramnios at or beyond term (37-42 weeks) and underwent induction of labor for oligohydramnios were studied. Antenatally diagnosed fetal anomalies and intrauterine fetal demise were excluded. The women were categorized into two groups: 1) women with isolated oligohydramnios (n = 166) and 2) women with oligohydramnios associated with other maternal or fetal complications (n = 43). Maternal and perinatal outcomes were collected from the records of all deliveries, data compiled, and appropriate statistical tests were applied. Results: The study included 209 women with mean gestational age of 38.76 +/- 1.00 weeks and mean induction-delivery interval of 17.45 +/- 8.70 hours (16.98 hours in group 1 versus 19.23 hours in group 2). Most (75%) women delivered vaginally. Only one of the neonates had an Apgar score of less than 7 at 5 min. Average neonatal ICU length of stay was 5.52 days (5.27 days in group 1 versus 6.17 days in group 2). Among all the maternal and neonatal outcomes studied, only the mean birth weights among the two groups was found to be statistically significant (p = 0.0017). Conclusions: Women with isolated oligohydramnios and their neonates were not found to suffer any additional harm due to labor induction at term than women who had oligohydramnios associated with other complications.