A significant study indicated that inducing labor at full term rather than waiting for natural labor did not raise the risk of serious difficulties for babies in healthy mothers. The findings also contradict the widely held belief that inducing labor at full term increases the likelihood of requiring surgical delivery. The researchers concluded that there is no evidence that induced labor at full term is harmful to the baby. Induced labor is when a woman's contractions are stimulated by drugs or other methods instead of waiting for them to come on their own. Inducing labor can be useful if you want to deliver before the fetus is fully developed or if you're having difficulty timing contractions. It can also be helpful if you have medical reasons for wanting to deliver the baby early- such as preeclampsia or fetal abnormalities- but your doctor may feel that waiting until later in pregnancy is better because of these factors. Some studies have suggested that infants born after induced labor are at higher risk for problems like jaundice and low blood pressure, but these risks can be reduced by following some basic safety guidelines. For example, an induction at full term can be done with drugs that will also work if you need to induce labor earlier. These drugs include prostaglandins and oxytocin. It's important to realize that although labors induced this way are usually shorter than natural ones, this does not always happen.