To evaluate the effect of maternal age and body mass index (BMI) on oral misoprostol induction of labor for late-term pregnancies.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Late term pregnancies out of labor,
• Bishop score < 7

Exclusion Criteria:

• labor (defined as presence of at least three painful uterine contractions every ten minutes),
• uterine tachysystole (>5 contractions within 10 minutes for two consecutive 10-minute periods),
• hypertonic uterus,
• abnormal CTG,
• contraindications to vaginal delivery (fetal malpresentation such as breech presentation or transverse situation, fetal macrosomia, abnormally implanted placenta, active genital herpes infection, cervical cancer),
• patients with parity > 4,
• medical contraindication to misoprostol (asthma, glaucoma),
• women with previous hysterotomies.

term (37 weeks or more of gestation) singleton pregnancies in women who have not had a previous cesarean delivery and a bishop score < 7.