Unmedicated Birth

Seriously, can NO ONE wait and have a child without being induced? Everyone that I'm 'friends' with on Facebook is getting induced for no good reason, and it is driving me MAD!

Sorry to rant! But, I think I came back from a weekend away tonight and have learned of 3 more induced births/induction plans.

Grrrrrr!

 

That's the one situation I never dealt with personally, and, knowing what I know now, it scares me more than any other possibility. Best I can figure, a lot of it is driven by fear of the unknown. Maybe we should blame all those dramas where the woman goes into labor and "tragically" cannot get to the hospital in time. Obviously, if you're inducing, that isn't going to happen.

If only childbirth were a bit more demystified (such that EVERYONE knew it didn't HAVE to be either an instant transport to a hospital or an emergency of the highest order) then more folk might be willing to see what happens.

I agree! It's ridiculous. My first encounter of induced birth came with my aunt, who chose to have her baby 6 weeks early b/c she thought it was going to be the first grandson and my other aunt was due 2 weeks before her.

Much to her dismay, it was a girl! But I was just appalled, even at the tender age of 12!

BTW - I heard a report on NPR that actually mentioned the high US infant mortality rate and how it was linked to induction, c-section, and premature birth due to fertility treatment.

Finally - a national outlet is telling the truth!

Hugs Theresa, I hear you. Despite all the evidence that tells us how harmful these planned deliveries, whether inductions or cesareans, are they seem to keep happening.  Women just blindly follow what their doctor suggests without the slightest idea that sometimes their doctor isn't acting with their best interests in mind or in the best health of the baby, that the doctor is not following research based medicine.  These women who are having on demand inductions and cesareans prior to 39 weeks don't realize that there are recommendations to wait until 39 weeks to reduce the risk of prematurity.  They assume since their doctor is inducing them at 37.5, it's safe and then when their baby has respiratory issues at first and must go to the NICU and stay a couple of extra days in the hospital, that their baby had been in some danger and thank goodness they induced early to get him out or heaven only knows what would have happened - and then their friends and acquaintances hear that exact story and beg/demand their own doctors to induce them at 37 weeks, before anything terrible can happen.

While doctors are happy to tell moms that a VBAC brings with it a 1/200 rate of uterine rupture, when they induce a mom, they don't tell her that this will double her chance of "needing" a cesarean and that in her next pregnancy after the cesarean, despite how she plans to have the baby born/delivered, she will have a 1/500 risk of rupture simply from being pregnant after the cesarean surgery.  But women wouldn't think to question these things, because they "love" their doctor and believes he loves them too. It would never occur to them that he or she is doing anything that conflicts with medical research or recommendations.

                                 Mindy