OBJECTIVES: to determine the factors associated with induced delivery in pregnant women carrying a dead fetus. METHODS: a cross-sectional study with 258 pregnant women past the 20th week of gestation diagnosed by ultrasound as carrying a dead fetus, between January 2005 and December 2008, at the Hospital Barão de Lucena maternity hospital, in Recife, Brazil. Socio-demographic characteristics, causes and types of fetal death, prior obstetric data and characteristics of birth were the variables studied. The chi-square test, Fisher's exact test and Student's t test were used. The rate of prevalence was calculated and multiple logistic regression was carried out. The level of significance was 5%. RESULTS: birth was induced in 83 (32.2%) of the pregnant women. Following multivariate analysis, it was found that a gestational age of over 40 weeks (OR= 126.5; CI95%= 3.83-4,201.5) and late fetal death (OR= 6.86; CI95%= 2.55-18.47) were the risk factors that continued to be associated with induced delivery. Caesarian section (OR= 0.02; CI95%= 0.004-0.09), funiculopathy (OR= 0.12; CI95%= 0.02-0.68), having had one or more previous pregnancies (OR= 0.34; CI95%= 0.14-0.81) and one or more previous caesarian sections (OR= 0.16; IC95%= 0.04-0.71) were negatively associated with induced delivery. CONCLUSIONS: a gestational age of over 40 weeks and late fetal death are the risk factors that could be associated with induced delivery in pregnant women carrying a dead fetus.
Labor induced; Fetal death; Stillbirth; Cesarean section
