Romer 2000.

Methods	Randomised controlled trial of acupuncture, and control using nonspecific acupuncture to examine the effect on cervical maturation and duration of labour. A nonrandomised usual care group was recruited to the study.
Participants	553 women were randomised to the trial at a Uni‐centre hospital in Mannheim, Germany. Women were primiparous, with exclusion criteria stated as multiple pregnancy, placenta previa, planned caesarean section, any bleeding after 28 weeks, and any coagulation disorder.
Interventions	Acupuncture was administered weekly from 36 weeks until delivery. For the treatment group, fixed acupoints were administered including: ST36, SP6, GB34, BL67. Control acupuncture used nonspecific acupuncture including GC20, PC6, HT7. Points were needled using tonifying techniques, with a treatment duration of 20 minutes.
Outcomes	Bishop's score, length of cervix, duration of labour
Notes	Study duration not reported Funding: not reported Conflicts of Interest: not reported
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Block randomisation using random table numbers.
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	No other details available.
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Participants allocated to acupuncture or the nonspecific acupuncture group were blind to their group allocation.
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Outcome assessor blind to group allocation.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	There were no dropouts.
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Unclear risk	No details available.
Other bias	Unclear risk	No details available.