Cervical Ripening in Nulliparous, Healthy, Full-Term Pregnant Women: The Impact of Oral Evening Primrose

Background Seeds of the evening primrose plant (Oenothera biennis) are used to make evening primrose oil (EPO) capsules. EPO's omega-6 essential fatty acids are mostly responsible for their therapeutic advantages since they have an impact on prostaglandin and cytokine synthesis. The purpose of this study was to assess how EPO affected cervical ripening in healthy nulliparous women who were carrying fullterm pregnancies. Methods A single-blinded randomized controlled trial was conducted involving 110 healthy nulliparous women, all with a Bishop score of 6 or lower, singleton pregnancies, cephalic presentations, and no signs of cephalo-pelvic disproportion. Participants were split into two equal groups at random: Group A, which received oral EPO capsules twice daily for one week, and Group B, which did not receive any medication. Results Bishop scores were assessed on first and last days for both groups. After the study, Group A exhibited significantly higher anterior and intermediate cervical positions, as well as soft and intermediate cervical consistency compared to Group B. Additionally, there was a significant difference in effort between the two groups on the last day. Furthermore, there were significant differences between the groups in fetal head station and cervical dilatation on the last day. On the last day, Group A's bishop score was significantly greater than Group B's. Additionally, Group A saw substantially fewer cases of labor augmentation and abnormal blood loss during first two hours than Group B. Conclusions EPO significantly increased the bishop’s score and significantly shortened the latent phase and second phase of labor.