Methods	RCT. 3-arm trial.
Participants	Setting: California, USA, women attending a naval medical centre 70 women included in the analysis (2 of 3 treatment arms included, total recruited 105 women) Inclusion criteria: women with “post dates” pregnancy - gestational age 41 weeks confirmed by menstrual dates and pre-20 weeks ultrasound. Uncomplicated pregnancy. Bishop score < 5 Exclusion criteria: women with any contraindication to vaginal delivery
Interventions	(1 intervention group had daily membrane stripping; this group has not been included in the analysis in this review.) Intervention group: intracervical PGE2 0.5 mg, daily for 3 days Comparison group: gentle cervical examination, daily for 3 days Women were instructed to return to hospital is they had bleeding, membrane rupture, regular contractions of reduction in fetal movements. Once Bishop score = 8 or women reached 42 weeks they were admitted to hospital for induction
Outcomes	Induced at 42 weeks, CS, instrumental delivery. Apgar score < 7 at 5 min, admission to NICU
Notes
Risk of bias
Item	Authors’ judgement	Description
Adequate sequence generation?	Yes	Random number tables.
Allocation concealment?	Yes	Sealed, opaque, sequentially numbered envelopes.
Blinding? Women	No	Not feasible.
Blinding? Clinical staff	No
Blinding? Outcome assessor	Unclear	Outcome assessment of cervical changes were reported to be blind
Incomplete outcome data addressed? All outcomes	Yes	No apparent loss to follow up.