I'm pregnant!
Whew.
I've known for months and just wasn't ready to share with anyone. But we finally told our families and now I'm ready to tell everyone.
So looking forward to the next home birth. So can't wait.
So my mommy had her baby recently. I was traumatized although she seems to be doing ok. She had wanted as physiological a birth as possible, and she would have gotten it if she hadn't been induced. Inductions, my friends, are the root of all birthing evil. In her case she had an actual condition that IS a valid reason for induction. Suspected big baby, being "past dates", convenience of scheduling - these are NOT valid reasons and I would seriously question a doctor who tried to push an induction on me for one of these reasons. Better yet I'd find a new doctor. Or not use one at all. Anyway, this WAS a valid reason for inducing, which was unfortunate.
Induction sets you up on a path where each intervention requires another, and another, until soon you are in birthing hell. It is very, very hard to labor on Pitocin, or so I'm told. Conventional wisdom is that Pit contractions are uncontrollable, unpredictable, and PAINFUL. Normal labor contractions have a very slow buildup, a peak that lasts only a tiny fraction, and a relatively quick fade. Pit contractions are like a sudden stop into a brick wall. They make your cervix unbearably painful to touch (hello, hourly cervix checks!) I know very few women who can labor all day on Pit without an epidural. Happily, the other day, I got to know one. She did it!
Unfortunately, with an induction you have to be on an IV. You can't move around, you can't walk, and it's even hard to get comfortable on a bed because you can't just turn over however you feel like it. This is worse if you are catheterized. Which puts you in a position where your labor isn't going to move, because you don't have gravity working the baby's head down against your cervix. Therefore you aren't dilating and effacing like you should. Plus you hurt more, because you can't shift and move to take the pressure off of wherever it hurts.
I really was traumatized by being at this birth. I feel guilty that she didn't get a lot of the things she wanted. Most of that was due to the induction. The rest was rooted in the fact that her really cool OB went home at supper time, and the sOB who came in was absolutely a butcher who has never heard of patient autonomy and informed refusal. I wanted to slap her by the time it was over. But that is why they say, "It's not my birth." Sigh. At least I can feel like I did my best by her.
Posted by
Karen