# SWEPIS trial (induction at 41 weeks)

Study · id `maternal:swepis-trial` · Maternal & Newborn Atlas · release `c7fb95f1d15a7d13` (public)

> General information from published sources, not medical advice, and not reviewed by clinicians. Check the cited source before relying on anything here.

The atlas's own text and curation may be reused under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/): credit the atlas, and do not use it commercially. See the atlas About page. Text quoted from a source stays under that source's own terms, given as the source's reuse\_basis. The atlas's reuse terms do not cover it. The downloads list each quotation with its source in third\_party\_quotations.

Also called: SWEPIS; SWEdish Post-term Induction Study

Browse, life stage: Pregnancy; Childbirth  
Browse, care area: Labour and birth  

## In plain language

A Swedish trial in healthy women with a normal pregnancy near the end of term. It compared inducing labour at 41 weeks with waiting and inducing at 42 weeks if labour had not started. About 2760 women took part in 14 hospitals. The monitoring board advised stopping the trial early because more babies died around birth in the waiting group. The main combined outcome did not differ between the groups.

## Technical summary

Multicentre, open label, randomised superiority trial (ISRCTN26113652), register-based: randomisation 1:1 through the Swedish Pregnancy Register. 2760 women randomised, 1381 to induction and 1379 to expectant management. Primary outcome: a composite perinatal outcome of stillbirth, neonatal mortality and serious newborn problems (an Apgar score below 7 at 5 minutes, umbilical artery pH or acidosis criteria, mechanical ventilation within 72 hours, obstetric brachial plexus injury, and hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy, convulsions, intracranial haemorrhage or meconium aspiration syndrome). Analysis was by intention to treat. Recruitment ran between 20 May 2016 and 13 October 2018; on 2 October 2018 the monitoring board advised stopping the trial, and recruitment ended on 13 October 2018. A published erratum (BMJ 2021, PMID 34911689) corrects the neonatal intensive care figures in table 3. Funders are listed in the paper; no organisation record exists in this atlas. The ISRCTN record was not fetched, so no registry status or registry dates are recorded.

## Key facts

- Design: Multicentre, open label, randomised controlled superiority trial. Randomisation 1:1 and most data collection used the Swedish Pregnancy Register.
- Phase: Not reported
- Enrolled: 2762 women (randomized count; Induction of labour at 41 weeks versus expectant management and induction of labour at 42 weeks (SWEdish Post-term Induction Study, SWEPIS): multicentre, open label, randomised, superiority trial, snapshot `maternal:pmc-pmc6939660-2026-10-14`, retrieved 2026-10-14); 2760 women (as printed in the abstract; the full text says two women withdrew consent after randomisation) (randomized count; Induction of labour at 41 weeks versus expectant management and induction of labour at 42 weeks (SWEdish Post-term Induction Study, SWEPIS): multicentre, open label, randomised, superiority trial, snapshot `maternal:pubmed-31748223-2026-10-14`, retrieved 2026-10-14); 1381 women in the induction group (intention-to-treat analysis) (analyzed count; Induction of labour at 41 weeks versus expectant management and induction of labour at 42 weeks (SWEdish Post-term Induction Study, SWEPIS): multicentre, open label, randomised, superiority trial, snapshot `maternal:pmc-pmc6939660-2026-10-14`, retrieved 2026-10-14); 1379 women in the expectant management group (intention-to-treat analysis) (analyzed count; Induction of labour at 41 weeks versus expectant management and induction of labour at 42 weeks (SWEdish Post-term Induction Study, SWEPIS): multicentre, open label, randomised, superiority trial, snapshot `maternal:pmc-pmc6939660-2026-10-14`, retrieved 2026-10-14)
- Started: 2016-05-20 (Induction of labour at 41 weeks versus expectant management and induction of labour at 42 weeks (SWEdish Post-term Induction Study, SWEPIS): multicentre, open label, randomised, superiority trial, snapshot `maternal:pmc-pmc6939660-2026-10-14`, retrieved 2026-10-14)
- Primary completion: Not reported
- Completion: Not reported
- Countries: Sweden (Induction of labour at 41 weeks versus expectant management and induction of labour at 42 weeks (SWEdish Post-term Induction Study, SWEPIS): multicentre, open label, randomised, superiority trial, snapshot `maternal:pubmed-31748223-2026-10-14`, retrieved 2026-10-14)
- Care setting: Fourteen hospitals in Sweden (five university clinics and nine county hospitals) that take part in the Swedish Pregnancy Register. (Induction of labour at 41 weeks versus expectant management and induction of labour at 42 weeks (SWEdish Post-term Induction Study, SWEPIS): multicentre, open label, randomised, superiority trial, snapshot `maternal:pmc-pmc6939660-2026-10-14`, retrieved 2026-10-14)
- Registry status: Not reported
- Stopped early: The trial stopped early, 2018-10-02. On this date the independent monitoring board advised the steering committee to end the trial, because deaths around birth were significantly more frequent in the expectant management group. The date is the board's advice: recruitment ran until 13 October 2018. (Induction of labour at 41 weeks versus expectant management and induction of labour at 42 weeks (SWEdish Post-term Induction Study, SWEPIS): multicentre, open label, randomised, superiority trial, snapshot `maternal:pmc-pmc6939660-2026-10-14`, retrieved 2026-10-14)

## Connected pages

- Tests induction at 41 weeks against expectant management with induction at 42 weeks: Induction of labour (`maternal:induction-of-labour`)

## Provenance

Content hash: 9a01833fb120c2f1a672bb1e4f4024fb3c64e742cf056c709aeece650a51fc92
Last substantive edit: 2026-10-14
Evidence last checked: 2026-10-14