NCT00244738

The Use of Castor Oil as a Labor Initiator in Post-date Pregnancies

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 82 (actual)
• Sponsor: Hadassah Medical Organization · Academic / Other
• Sex: Female
• Age: 18 Years – 50 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The purpose of the study is to determine whether castor oil is effective in inducing labor.

Detailed description

Castor oil is traditionally given by midwives in order to induce labor. Its efficacy as an initiator of labor was previously tested only in one clinical trial. Unfortunately this study (by Garry et al.) was not sufficiently controlled. We intent to recruit 84 healthy pregnant women with no contraindication to vaginal delivery that had past their due date. Women will be randomly and blindly divided into equal sized intervention group and control group. Intervention group will be given 60 mL of castor oil in 140 mL of orange juice, while control group will be given a placebo with similar texture. Primary outcome to be tested is the percentage of women entering active labor within 24 hours of administration.

Conditions

• Prolonged Pregnancy

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DIETARY_SUPPLEMENT	Castor oil	Patients who received castor oil for labor induction
DIETARY_SUPPLEMENT	Sunflower oil	Patients who received sunflower oil as a placebo

Timeline

• Start date: 2006-02-01
• Primary completion: 2010-09-01
• Completion: 2010-09-01
• First posted: 2005-10-27
• Last updated: 2012-03-20

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Israel