Inducing
I'm not sure exactly how this works ... do you induce the baby? the pregnancy? the mother?
Anyway, it's a practice I don't understand; the doctor decides, often ahead of the so-called due date, that it's time for the baby to be born. Sometimes this practice makes perfectly good sense, especially when there are health risks, but other times it seems like the inducing is done purely for convenience.
Such as an impending holiday.
So this weekend my family will grow by one. Before Memorial Day, I should have a new niece, Harper Privette Hickman.
I'm really excited, although since they live in Mississippi I won't get to meet the child any time soon.
But I do wish they'd let the child come on her own terms.
Anyway, it's a practice I don't understand; the doctor decides, often ahead of the so-called due date, that it's time for the baby to be born. Sometimes this practice makes perfectly good sense, especially when there are health risks, but other times it seems like the inducing is done purely for convenience.
Such as an impending holiday.
So this weekend my family will grow by one. Before Memorial Day, I should have a new niece, Harper Privette Hickman.
I'm really excited, although since they live in Mississippi I won't get to meet the child any time soon.
But I do wish they'd let the child come on her own terms.
posted by jon at 11:30 AM
9 Comments:
My wife was induced both times. The reason basically is that, after the child 'drops', the sooner the better. Once the child drops, the likelihood of complications increases the longer the child stays there.
With the first, had we not induced, she would not have made it as she had the umbilical chord around her neck three times. She came early and there were no problems.
-SayUncle
Congratulations, by the way.
And I'm not saying inducing is wrong per se. I just don't see inducing just for the sake of scheduling the birth.
But what do I know?
Mr. Say Uncle - I am happy and grateful your children are healthy and well, but thereasons you just gave for induction are, with all due respect, ridiculous from a medical standpoint. The baby "dropping" poses no risk. It's part of the body's natural readying for full-on labor. And induction doesn't have anything to do with lessening the risk from a cord being wrapped around a baby's neck. It's still labor, albeit fake labor, so the risk from a cord-wrap are exactly the same.
Induction is epidemic in this country and there are many risks associated with it. It also adds hundreds or thousands of dollars to the average maternity hospital bill.
Katie
Doesn't induction also make the labor "harder" or more intense?
It just seems so unnecessary to me, when nature has its own way of scheduling a birth.
Let me preface this by saying, as a male, my participating in this is akin to yelling at the TV when the figure skaters fall down.
That said, whats the problem with induced births? Has there been documented problems with babies being born after induction?
The process, as I understand it, is a chemical strip laid on the cervix which starts the process of widening it. True, the chemical gets into the bloodstream, but its supposed to be in such minute particles as to be on par with walking across the street after a car drives by, or something like that.
On top of that, I challenge any of you to go to damn near any woman who's 2 weeks past their due dates and tell them induction is a bad idea. Whew...
There are a number of ways to nduce labor and a number of medically sound reasons for doing so. However, there are risks associated with it; it's an invasive medical procedure. Because of this, it should be reserved for when it IS medically necessary.
See: http://www.motherfriendly.org/Downloads/induct-fact-sheet.pdf.
AT - the problem with induced births, as I see it, is that it raises the risk. Sometimes, inducing is medically necessary and highly advisable. But sometimes, as in the case of my soon-to-be niece, it is done for scheduling reasons.
If inducing is necessary, it should be done. But if it's not necessary, you're raising the risk of complications with the birth when the child is simply not ready. If it were my child, I would never want the risks raised any degree unless necessary.
And in this case, the due date isn't for another week. This practice of scheduling births for convenience sake just seems like a bad plan.
Jon, you are very right. Babies come when THEY are ready - not when other people are tired of waiting.
Among many risks, one of the #1 risks is that it makes labour harder and less effective therefore increasing the "need" for an epidural which often slows down labour, along with the EFM which dramatically decreases the effectiveness of labour, which means more pitocin to speed it back up and it can go around and around until a cesarean ends it.
Also, due to the incredibly appauling impatience of most doctors, they tend to over-induce - not just as to whether or not it's necessary - but they're unwilling to wait 24 hours, even when it's not an emergency, for it to take effect and sometimes dose women every hour until labour starts which overwhelms the whole body.
I am VERY much against unnecessary induction, or other unnecessary interventions, because of the physical, mental and emotional risks they pose to both mother and child.
-Emy
The remarkable message
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