Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Apr
11
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“It’s The Same…It Just Skips A Few Steps.”
“It’s the same as the oxytocin that your body produces, it just skips a few steps.” -Midwife to mother four hours after her water broke spontaneously, who was now having only mild contractions, in an attempt to have the mother agree to speeding up the labor with pitocin.
There are 33 comments to this post.
Heather (qtberryhead) had this to say,
Apr 11, 2010 @ 3:31 pm (Quote)
The only thing that the two have in common is the fact that medical staff routinely call them by the same name.
Any woman that has given birth by means of the real stuff vs. the fake stuff knows that there is a huge difference. After my Pit induced birth I read somewhere that described Pit contractions as “violent”, and I can’t think of a better word!
I would not Pit my worst enemy.
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Safiyah Reply:
April 11th, 2010 at 3:55 pm (Quote)
Wow, Heather, sounds horrible. On that note, I can’t believe my OB hinted that Pit may be a possibility in my labor, EVEN though I’m a VBAC! (Pit can raise the incidence of uterine rupture in any woman, but with VBACs having a scar, the incidence of course increases. So from my research, Pit should never be given to a VBAC mom!)
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AMDR Reply:
April 11th, 2010 at 4:19 pm (Quote)
Right you are, but my OB insisted on pit with my vbac! Gosh they are so dumb!! We are homebirth only now……
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Heather (qtberryhead) Reply:
April 11th, 2010 at 5:04 pm (Quote)
I knew about the problems with using Pitocin in VBACs, and it makes me wonder if there is a connection between that fact and the fact that many hospitals and doctors are now refusing to allow VBACs.
Is it possible that their refusal for allowing a “trial” labor has something to do with the fact that they have (ethically) to allow nature to take its own course and not speed things up for their own convenience? I don’t believe that 33% of women are incapable of vaginal births, nor do I support the use of Pitocin in labor.
I strongly support homebirth!
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Safiyah Reply:
April 11th, 2010 at 6:33 pm (Quote)
Oh definitely! Totally agree. Homebirth is my dream! I badly want a homebirth, since this will likely be my last baby, but can’t afford one (or more specifically, can’t afford the $2000+ copay.) And I’m “too far along” for the homebirth midwives in my area. 
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THe Deranged Housewife Reply:
April 12th, 2010 at 5:38 am (Quote)
I am convinced this is why there were lawsuits that ended up making everyone not want to do VBACs. Not because they were considered more high-risk, but a) because doctors were not treating women with a scar differently, as they should have; and b) they are pissed that they can’t augment or shouldn’t aggressively labor because of your scar.
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Michelle Potter Reply:
April 11th, 2010 at 7:47 pm (Quote)
I completely agree! When I had my first VBAC, my OB and I had discussed Pitocin (which I had to “augment” my first labor and did NOT want again), and he told me how dangerous it was. I was so relieved that he was so adamantly against the use of Pitocin in VBACs. Then I got to the hospital and every few minutes someone would come in and tell me I “needed” Pitocin because I was taking too long. (My whole labor was only 8 hours, but by the end they were talking c-section for FTP!) I argued and argued, telling them what my doctor had said, but they just kept saying my doctor ordered it! (I did NOT believe them.) I never got the Pit, but that was just one of the many things they did to tick me off that day (like turning up my epidural when I told them not to, pestering me with the same stupid “pain or pressure” question over and over while I was trying to concentrate, holding me down when I tried to change positions, and then threatening to call security when I wanted to keep my baby to room-in.)
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Safiyah Reply:
April 11th, 2010 at 8:38 pm (Quote)
My goodness, it’s a miracle you gave birth vaginally, with all that harassment and pestering!! Good for you!
I would have so filed a complaint though, about all the other crap, like holding you down when you wanted to change positions, etc. Despicable.
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Jane Reply:
April 12th, 2010 at 5:51 am (Quote)
Wow,medical harassment. :-b Too bad your doctor wasn’t there to tell them no pit. And holding you down…? Geez.
I’m sorry you went through that.
Too many people have the mindset that if you can replicate a natural process with medication, you SHOULD, and that’s backward. Medicine should be the backstop when natural processes fail, not the first line of defense to circumvent natural processes.
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Michelle Potter Reply:
April 12th, 2010 at 11:37 am (Quote)
Thanks for the sympathy. I should have filed a complaint, but by the time I got out of there I was just thankful to escape. I used to have a photo of the two nurses who were the worst of it, and I used to fantasize about using it to find them and tell them exactly how horrible they were to me. I think I must have deleted the photo in a fit of anger one day, though.
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Heather Reply:
April 11th, 2010 at 10:01 pm (Quote)
I had pit in my VBAC *rolls eyes* Apparently my OB routinely uses it for augmentation in VBAC and has never had a rupture. His VBAC rate is the highest in our area, too.
But I know how pit affects me–no different from regular contractions. I’m lucky. My mom and sister both had hell for contractions with their pit. Of course, it also almost killed me. Three minutes of my life, gone forever and I would never have known had my husband not told me the next day.
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Knitted in the Womb Reply:
April 13th, 2010 at 7:46 am (Quote)
A lot of how Pit impacts people depends on how the care provider uses it. Most use it rather aggressively in my area–starting at doses 2 to 4 times the reccommended starting dose and increasing it MUCH faster than reccommended to levels that are 3 times higher than natural peak oxytocin levels.
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Heather Reply:
April 13th, 2010 at 12:30 pm (Quote)
Oh, it was a saline drip malfunction, not the pit itself. Otherwise, I’d have worried they tried the pit to distress thing on me since I had a birth plan for a natural birth. Both my labors were started at 1 and very slowly moved up to end at 10 (and the scale goes to 40, apparently). But in my first, the saline drip got a kink and stop, so I got level 10 pure pit. It stopped my breathing and my baby’s. My husband thought he was going to lose us both Then he got to have the same fear again several hours later when I went in for my cesarean.
If I hadn’t been cabin-fever-y, he’d have been all over a home birth after that. He saw it was all iatrogenic. We were both hoping for a really fast birth and accidental UBAC, actually. Alas, my second labor was even longer than my first.
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Heather Reply:
April 13th, 2010 at 12:34 pm (Quote)
Forgot to say, both were augmentation, not induction–the first was after 5 hours of no progress on broken waters (on their own, at home, in the bath) and I ended up with 8 hours of nothing happening before I finally dilated again. In the second, I had an epidural after 8 hours of transition so it was stalling my labor (I think I was just doing the same “rest” as in my last labor, but I was mostly asleep when they came in to tell me it was going to happen, so I just went back to sleeping, since exhaustion is what did in my first birth). I had my baby only a couple hours later, but I think it was the epidural more than the pit, since my body had been in too much distress to progress and as soon as I was resting, it finished up fairly quickly.
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And forceps are the same as pushing, just skipping a few steps.
And narcotics are the same as endorphins, just different.
And lithotomy is the same as squatting, just at a different angle. (This one I’ve heard said to a mother!)
And episiotomies are the same as tearing, just neater (and easier to repair).
And cesareans are the same as labor, just skipping, um, all the steps.
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Safiyah Reply:
April 11th, 2010 at 3:56 pm (Quote)
Exactly!!!!!
LOL@ the last one– toooo true.
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VW Reply:
April 11th, 2010 at 5:07 pm (Quote)
And don’t forget, formula is just like breast milk!
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Brittany Reply:
April 11th, 2010 at 7:35 pm (Quote)
I had an OB tell me that lithotomy was the same as squatting, also.
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pria Reply:
April 12th, 2010 at 4:58 am (Quote)
This one was my submission – said to my dear friend when I was her birthing partner – after this pearler, the midwife said ‘we’ve also read your birth plan which says you don’t want any time limits on your labour…that’s great and we’ll do our best to accommodate that. Now, I’m due for my dinner break in 15 minutes so I’ll put the cannula in…you go for a walk and be back at 6:15 and we’ll get the drip started.’ I talked to my friend about the cascade of interventions, that her waters had only been broken for 4 hours, baby was doing fine, so if she insisted on no more VEs (to avoid infection) and went for a big long walk, labour would most likely start on its own…my poor friend was terrified and agreed to start the pitocin…within 30 minutes, baby’s heart rate was all over the place, yet they increased the dose anyway…baby’s heart rate dropping even more dramatically…after 3 hours of pitocin contractions, OB agrees to stop pitocin and my friend, my beautiful hero, got through another 12 hours of labour, pain relief free and birthed her baby. Two weeks later she was diagnosed with golden staph. Next time she’s staying at home.
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Kim had this to say,
Apr 11, 2010 @ 3:42 pm (Quote)
My OB said something similar when (after having a very normal, unmedicated birth with my fist daughter) I was explaining that these “Pitocin contractions” with my second were so different and I couldn’t seem to focus like I could the first time. OB response: “No honey, a contraction is a contraction. It’s all the same.” Nice.
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Jane Reply:
April 11th, 2010 at 4:27 pm (Quote)
“Well, doctor-honey,if a contraction is a contraction,turn off the pit and let me contract.”
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The Deranged Housewife Reply:
April 12th, 2010 at 5:41 am (Quote)
Obviously, someone didn’t read the package insert. Wouldn’t it be to whip it out during labor and say, “Actually, according to the manufacturer…” Doesn’t it mention “tetanic contractions” in the literature? Grrr…
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Read “Pain in Labour: Your hormones are your helpers” by Sarah Buckley. She describes the actions of the hormones during labor and delivery. It is a wonderful and educational read. http://www.sarahjbuckley.com/articles/labour-hormones.htm
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The first thing that comes to mind is…
Pffffffffffffttttttttthpppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp! Yeah right!
Whoever described their pit contractions as “violent” described my experience to a T. If not for the pit I probably would have had a much easier labor and delivery. Ya know.. my body would have been READY and stuff, by itself, not from pitocin.
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This one was my submission – said to my dear friend when I was her birthing partner – after this pearler, the midwife said ‘we’ve also read your birth plan which says you don’t want any time limits on your labour…that’s great and we’ll do our best to accommodate that. Now, I’m due for my dinner break in 15 minutes so I’ll put the cannula in…you go for a walk and be back at 6:15 and we’ll get the drip started.’ I talked to my friend about the cascade of interventions, that her waters had only been broken for 4 hours, baby was doing fine, so if she insisted on no more VEs (to avoid infection) and went for a big long walk, labour would most likely start on its own…my poor friend was terrified and agreed to start the pitocin…within 30 minutes, baby’s heart rate was all over the place, yet they increased the dose anyway…baby’s heart rate dropping even more dramatically…after 3 hours of pitocin contractions, OB agrees to stop pitocin and my friend, my beautiful hero, got through another 12 hours of labour, pain relief free and birthed her baby. Two weeks later she was diagnosed with golden staph. Next time she’s staying at home.
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Have you considered unassisted? 
We had our second at home unassisted after much research. My husband basically said he wasn’t going to pay a midwife thousands of dollars for something we could do for free whether I go to the hospital with insurance or stay home unassisted, and I am more comfortable doing things on my own than having someone attend me. Laura Shanley’s site is a great start http://www.unassistedchildbirth.com/ but there used to be this AWESOME site that I went to almost daily purebirth-australia.com but apparently it isn’t up anymore and I’m a little depressed about that! argh!! Anyways, good luck!
Oh definitely! Totally agree. Homebirth is my dream! I badly want a homebirth, since this will likely be my last baby, but can’t afford one (or more specifically, can’t afford the $2000+ copay.) And I’m “too far along” for the homebirth midwives in my area.
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch Reply:
August 2nd, 2010 at 1:36 pm (Quote)
We’re “semi-unassisted.” My midwife lives two hours away from me, her assistant isn’t much closer, and I have a history of really rapid labours when they’re natural.
If I call her when my water breaks or I otherwise show signs of active hard labour (screaming in pain from the labour surges is usually a good sign) chances are that the baby will arrive before either the midwife or her assistant. I get to give birth all alone, which is what I prefer, and I get aftercare in the comfort of my own home. (Prenatal care was also included in the price tag.)
If my labour takes a long enough time for the midwife to arrive before the baby is close to crowning, there’s a good chance the baby might be in an awkward enough position that it could benefit from a skilled pair of hands. Which, again, I get to avail myself of in the privacy of my own home – and they are probably more experienced at turning/shifting babies than the hands of any hospital-based OB or even many hospital-based CNMs.
And if there’s a true emergency, I trust my midwife’s judgment call if she thinks I need hospital transport. Which I probably won’t, because I tend to have hard, fast, uncomplicated births.
It’s the best of both worlds, for me.
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Ok Pitocin and Oxytocin are NOT bio-identical (nor chemically identical).
1) Pitocin is released differently. Oxytocin is released in pulses, pitocin is released in a constant IV feed. This has shown time and time again to produce longer stronger labor, sometimes more than the placenta can handle, depriving the baby of oxygen.
2) Pitocin *doesn’t* work as well on the uterine wall as Oxytocin, and also doesn’t dilate the cervix as well as Oxytocin.
3) Unless you’ve got someone manually controlling the drip, there is no spike of pitocin at the moment of birth to stimulate the fetal ejection reflex. By contrast this is *exactly* what happens in natural Oxytocin release.
5) Pitocin actually interferes with the release of Oxytocin, which can mess with the bonding process between mother and baby.
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Those steps are very important… Like the blood – brain barrier that also tells your body to release more pain-relieving hormones, endorphins, and getting ready for the love cocktail you get when your baby is born… That makes me sad.
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