§ Baroness FISHER of REDNALasked Her Majesty's Government:
What research has been undertaken to discover whether any efficiency or benefit is to be gained from the practice of inducing birth, and whether the interests of the mother and baby are fully taken into account.
§ Lord CULLEN of ASHBOURNEThree recent research projects have been supported by Her Majesty's Government, either directly or through the Medical Research Council.
The results of a study by Dr. Ann Cartwright of the Institute of Social Studies in Medical Care which examined the experience of childbirth and induction primarily from the mother's viewpoint 1524WA were published earlier this year under the title The Dignity of Labour. Special emphasis was given to the problems of assessing the effects of induction of labour on perinatal mortality during the Oxford Record Linkage Study carried out by the Unit of Clinical Epidemiology at Oxford University. The effects of obstetric procedures on the fœtus and its post-natal development, with special reference to methods employed to induce or inhibit the onset of labour, are the subject of a study being undertaken by Dr. Margaret Ounsted in the Maternity Department at John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford.
There are many medical indications for the use of induction of labour where continuation of pregnancy threatens the health of the mother or her baby, but whether such techniques should be used to reduce this risk in an individual case is a matter for the clinical judgment of the doctor in charge.