Bishop score

Overview
Bishop score, also Bishop's score, is a pre-labour scoring system to assist in predicting whether induction of labour will be required.

Components
The total score is achieved by assessing the following five components on vaginal examination:


 * Cervical dilatation
 * Cervical effacement
 * Cervical consistency
 * Cervical position
 * Fetal station

They can be remembered with the mnemonic: Call PEDS For Parturition = Cervical Postion, Effacement, Dilation, Softness; Fetal Station.

Scoring
Each components is given a score of 0-2 or 0-3. The highest possible score is 13.

Interpretation
A score of 5 or less suggests that labour is unlikely to start without induction. A score of 9 or more indicates that labour will most likely commence spontaneously.

A low Bishop's score often indicates that induction is unlikely to be successful. Some sources indicate that only a score of 8 or greater is reliably predictive of a successful induction.

Modified Bishop score
According to the Modified Bishop's pre-induction cervical scoring system, effacement has been replaced by cervical length in cm, with scores as follows- 0>3cm, 1>2cm, 2>1cm, 3>0cm.