A 28-year-old woman is pregnant for the second time, having miscarried a year ago. At the time she miscarried, she was working as a volunteer in Haiti and did not seek medical care. Her doctor is...

A 28-year-old woman is pregnant for the second time, having miscarried a year ago. At the time she miscarried, she was working as a volunteer in Haiti and did not seek medical care. Her doctor is concerned that the baby that she is carrying now may have hemolytic disease due to Rh incompatibility. She also has diabetes. She has an increase in optical density at 450 nm on her amniotic fluid screen with a Liley graph reading of 0.6 and is at approximately 34 weeks of gestation. Her L/S ratio was 2.1. The physician is considering inducing labor. Further testing of the amniotic fluid shows an FLM II reading of 55 mg surfactant/g of albumin.

Questions

1. What do the tests reveal? Why was the FLM II reading ordered in this case when the patient already had the L/S ratio performed?

2. Why is the physician considering inducing labor?