• Question: is your research going to help if a women has to be induced?

    Asked by egibbs to Gemma on 21 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Gemma Sharp

      Gemma Sharp answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Hi, thanks for the question 🙂

      Well I’m looking in to what triggers labour to start when it does, so although the focus is on helping stop premature labour, the results could be helpful in predicting which women are probably gonna have to be induced too.

      Babies are usually induced when the pregnancy has been going on a while past the due date and labour still hasn’t started, or if the waters have broken but labour hasn’t started. To induce a baby, midwives try a ‘membrane sweep’ where they basically wipe a finger over the sac the baby grows in to try to separate it from the cervix or they can also give drugs to the mother. Both of those seem to start contractions and make sure the baby comes out before it gets too big!

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