Evaluation of different approaches to obstetric care: Part II.

The obstetric management and outcome of normal patients presenting to two obstetric teams working in the Cardiff Maternity Hospital are compared over a five-year period. One team induced labour with amniotomy and oxytocin infusion three times more frequently than the other. No advantage or disadvantage of this practice was demonstrated using various measures of perinatal morbidity and mortality. The implications of these findings are discussed together with those of two previously reported observational studies. The need for experimental research in perinatal medicine is stressed.