Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Feb
26
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“I’ll Be Doing Inductions On Wednesday…”
“I’ll be doing inductions on Wednesday, if you change your mind. You know, why would you want to wait any longer? Wouldn’t it be great to have the baby in your arms by now?” -OB calling the mother on her cell phone at 39 weeks.
There are 19 comments to this post.
The Deranged Housewife had this to say,
Feb 26, 2010 @ 6:36 pm (Quote)
Wow, sounds like an infomercial or something. How pathetic! You call this practicing medicine? I’d be like, Um, I don’t know. Let me see what my medical malpractice attorney says before I make a decision…. !
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“Wouldn’t it be great to NOT be pressured into an unnecessary induction????” Gaaaaah.
I find it quite unsettling that dr has a day set aside EVERY week for inductions. How many of those occur without basis?!
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Right now, our cultural consensus is that there is no reason nor benefit to fullterm, natural-length gestation, despite our horribly high rate of prematurity (and they don’t say how much of that is natural and how much iatrogenic). Most people don’t know any better than to assume that 40 weeks is the limit to gestation, and that 38 weeks is just as good as full term, nor that there is considerable variability to dates, because women don’t just ovulate on Day 14, as the little wheel assumes.
So then we have lots of “failed” inductions attempted when the baby and woman were nowhere near ready, lots of babies forced out of the womb into prematurity and all it entails, and for nothing but a marketed idea of “convenience” and $$ for hospitals.
It’s very popular to live with your mind in neutral.
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the Deranged Housewife Reply:
February 27th, 2010 at 12:46 pm (Quote)
I just read a comment on another forum about a mom being 35 weeks, 1 cm dilated and such and such percent effaced, and “should I take castor oil?”
We were all like WTF would you want to do that for? You’re not even due yet! Some women actually think 36 weeks is ‘term’ and that they could willingly give birth then and everything will magically be okay. it’s not like a batch of cookies coming out of the oven, for God’s sake.
While these women have so much information at their fingertips as to safety, protocols, etc. they often rely on their doctors for all the information, which in and of itself wouldn’t be so bad, except their doctors either knowingly omit certain facts or totally downplay it.
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Let’s follow the little trail of irony, shall we? We all know that normal gestation is between 37 and 43 weeks, with closer to the center posing the least risk and closer to the extremes posing the most. Most US OBs will hoot and holler if a mom suggests going more than a week beyond the magic middle number 40 – ranting about more babies dropping dead every hour past the magic number. Very, very few give a fart about babies coming 2 or 3 weeks AHEAD of the magic middle number 40. The risks to the health of the baby do rise by a small percentage after 43 weeks. The risks to the health of the baby rise dramatically the earlier a baby is born. If a mom wants to wait to labor normally with her own body she’s “taking a HUGE risk with her baby’s life.” But if a doctor wants to haul a babe out early it’s “no big. Look, we’ve got this shiny NICU right here and nothing bad could possibly come from my impatience.” Bit of a disconnect in that logic? I think so.
This from someone currently watching a good friend go through having a babe in NICU for being induced at 36.5 weeks for ABSOLUTELY NO REASON! Baby has been there for 3 weeks now.
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Brittney Reply:
February 27th, 2010 at 7:02 am (Quote)
I was born 24 days past my due date, and even 24 years ago, Dr’s, nurses and midwives were trying to pull the “dead baby” card.
She had refused an U/S because she said they were new and there was no long term evidence that they were safe. They finally talked her into an u/s to check the placenta and fluid levels 3 days before I was born. She did however agree to have DAILY non stress tests at the hospital because it was the only way to get them off her back, lol, and she did those from 40 weeks on!
She also took me home from the hospital at 8 hours post partum, and told the nurse who tried to hold me hostage that she would not hesitate to hurt her and call the police if she didn’t hand me over immediately!
They couldn’t afford the cost of having a midwife attended home birth, so she did the next best thing… A hospital birth on her terms 
My mother is my inspiration for wanting an intervention free birth, and when I told her that #3 (not pregnant yet, will be sometime in the next year or so) will be born at home, she was sooooo excited
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Jessica Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 5:01 am (Quote)
I’m so proud of your mama!
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Brittney Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 9:02 am (Quote)
Me too Unfortunately, even though I was pretty well informed with #1 and VERY well informed with #2, I could kick myself for allowing the things I did with my 2 births. But, hindsights 20/20, and when you’re in labor and someone pulls out the “dead baby” card, even if you know they are full of crap, it is still hard to argue much.
But, never again! I will never give birth in a hospital unless it is medically necessary!
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“ACOG recommendations say the gestational age of the fetus should be determined to be at least 39 weeks or that fetal lung maturity must be established before induction.”
Pretty clear cut. If anyone is inducing before then without it being an emergent situation (which would likely call for a c-section), they aren’t up to date.
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Knitted in the Womb Reply:
March 1st, 2010 at 2:12 pm (Quote)
And yet it is done quite commonly–the most common reasons I hear for inductions at 38 or even 37 weeks are “suspected large baby” and “low amniotic fluid (anything from 7 cm to 12 cms I’ve heard defined this way…even though I’ve read research from Johns Hopkins that defines below 5 cm as low, and found that inducing for this reason in the absense of other risk factors was not indicated.
Oh, and the one that REALLY drove me nuts…”mother has never gone past 34 weeks with her previous pregnancies, so she finds 37+ weeks to be unbearable.” Seriously…I know someone who Dr. shopped to find someone who would induce her.
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Sheva Reply:
March 1st, 2010 at 2:39 pm (Quote)
I was induced twice because my water broke. They didn’t wait at all to induce me. Is rupture of membranes an automatic indication for induction? One was at 38 weeks and just a tiny trickle, which they confirmed with nitrazine paper (which is why I assumed it was the way to confirm membrane rupture), and one was at 34 weeks, 6 days – that one broke with a gush, and she stayed in the NICU for 2 weeks.
Would there have been any way of safely continuing the pregnancy?
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Kat Reply:
March 1st, 2010 at 3:20 pm (Quote)
Sheva, I am not a doctor, but based on my research, as long as *nothing* is inserted into the vagina, and the mother is closely monitored for elevated temperature or other sign of infection, it has not been proven unsafe to wait for labor to begin on its own.
I have a friend whose 3rd child had his water break at 32 weeks! She was admitted to the hospital, on bedrest, took steroids to help mature the baby’s lungs, and had daily ultrasounds to check the baby’s condition. She stayed pregnant three more weeks, and had a very medically necessary c-section at 35 weeks. The baby was breech, and his cord was around his neck, plus he had ingested some blood at some point! He did not need to stay in the NICU, and was home with his mother within a week. I am no expert, but I’d venture a guess that extra time inside his momma did him a WORLD of good.
My friend went on to have 2 successful VBACs (so far) and her little guy will be 4 soon.
I don’t know your specific circumstances, and whether you had risk factors that made continuing unsafe for you and the baby, but I do know broken water does not automatically mean the birth must happen ASAP.
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amy had this to say,
Mar 2, 2010 @ 10:03 pm (Quote)
In my area, the doctor who is at the delivery is the one that gets paid for all the prenatal care. This results in many doctors finding plenty of reasons to induce their patients on the days they’ll be on-call. We have a 90% induction rate here.
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“And this medical intervention became medically necessary right now because…?”
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