Design and participants
labor, cephalo-pelvic disproportion
MARGINAL PLACENTA PREVIA, SEVERE PREECLAMPSIA, PRECIPITOUS LABOR, COMPLICATED PREGNANCY, PRETERM LABOR, BLIND, PLACENTAL ABRUPTION
This was a comparative study. The study was conducted from April to October 2018. The study participants consisted of a cohort of pregnant women candidates for labor induction attending to the maternity ward in a teaching hospital affiliated with the Iran University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, Iran. Candidates were selected based on the inclusion criteria. The inclusion criteria were: to be Iranian, singleton pregnancy, 37 to 42 weeks gestational age (with ultrasound history in the first or second trimester of pregnancy), fetal head presentation, a living fetus with no abnormalities (known for embryos along with ultrasound reports), uncomplicated pregnancy (including preterm labor, placental abruption, severe preeclampsia, marginal placenta previa), no history of previous cesarean section or any uterine surgery, estimated fetal weight less than 5 kg, and not being estimated maximum one station of the fetal head during labor (with regard to the unpredictable speed prenatal delivery in women specially in the precipitous labor). The exclusion criteria were: cephalo-pelvic disproportion, and unwillingness to participate in the study. We used two methods to collect the data: ‘trans-labial ultrasound plus vaginal examination’, and ‘vaginal examination only’. Thus, women were randomly assigned into two groups: trans-labial ultrasound plus vaginal examination (group A) and vaginal examination only (group B). As such a standard-sized paper marked A (trans-labial plus vaginal examination group) or B (vaginal examination only group), and folded to fit an envelope. Then, at the time of admission to the delivery room, one of us (ENKH), offered a blind envelop to women for group assignment.