Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Apr
20
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“If You’re Lucky, You’ll Go On Your Own.”
“If you’re lucky, you’ll go on your own.” – OB resident to mother while scheduling her induction at 41 weeks.
There are 28 comments to this post.
devil is in the details had this to say,
Apr 20, 2011 @ 3:27 pm (Quote)
How about if you are smart you will wait until 42 weeks and let yourself go on your own, maybe do a NST, but actually 41 weeks and 1 day is NORMAL for a first time white mom.
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This sounds more like a Thoughtful Thursday!
1) The resident sounds hopeful/support of her going on her own.
2) They are scheduling for 41 weeks not 37 or 38 so that’s a victory right there.
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Devil is in the Details Reply:
April 20th, 2011 at 3:35 pm (Quote)
Nope sorry anything before 42 weeks is a FAIL. I’m not lowering my standards. If the NST comes up clean see you next week or when I’m in labor. The resident need to learn real evidence not CYA policy! Inductions don’t just stink. They are dangerous.
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Angelica Reply:
April 24th, 2011 at 6:17 pm (Quote)
I loved my NP. She was great about respecting my decision to decline the GTT, respectfully answered my questions about birth control, always asked me if I wanted to be checked before she checked me, and she didn’t sweep my membranes at 40 weeks because she knew I wanted to go natural. But i was so disappointed at my 40 week visit, because she said she was going to call the residents and have them schedule my induction for 41 weeks. I said no, and she was great about it as usual, but she kept saying something to the effect of “IF the residents will LET you go to 42 weeks.” I actually said “LET hell! I don’t have to come back here, scheduled or not!” She agreed with me, but it’s so programmed with medical pros these days, that they often say things that sound bad, even when they mean well.
(The induction talk was a moot point anyway, I went into active labor the day before my scheduled NSTs with the residents, at 40 weeks and 5 days.)
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Allie Reply:
April 20th, 2011 at 3:36 pm (Quote)
Yes I’m kind of torn between the thoughtful thursday or maybe she should just let her go on her own before scheduling anything that early.
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Cara Reply:
April 20th, 2011 at 3:40 pm (Quote)
Yeah, no.
1) The resident implied that only women “lucky” enough will go into labor on their own. That inductions are necessary because giving birth is all about being lucky and not a normal, natural thing that will happen for nearly every woman if she gives her body time (there are only maybe a handful of cases in the whole world of women staying pregnant indefinitely.)
2) 41 weeks is not considered post-dates by any medical or health organization. Just because they didn’t schedule an induction dangerously early doesn’t mean that this is a thoughtful or helpful gesture, especially considering that many first time moms go past 41 weeks…
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Jane Reply:
April 20th, 2011 at 3:56 pm (Quote)
While I agree with you, I just wanted to nitpick.
Postdates = a mom who goes past the date the doctor set for her, which may have been arbitrarily decided by The Wheel Of When
Postmature = a baby has passed the ideal time to be born, the placenta has begun failing, and the environment inside the womb is now a non-ideal place for the baby to remain.
41 weeks is technically “postdates” but is not (for most babies) postmature.
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even my crappy military hospital birth with my son they wouldn’t even THINK about inducing me before 42 weeks. no matter how much i begged. (it was my first and i was 10 days over due. i knew nothing then about birth and what it could be). as luck would have it my water broke that next morning and i went to the hospital to be started on pitocin 2 hours later.. -.- still considered an induction in my eyes now that i look back on it.
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Bonita Reply:
April 20th, 2011 at 6:17 pm (Quote)
When was this? I had my first at a military hospital and at my 40 week appointment they came in and TOLD me that I was scheduled for an induction at 41 weeks. I refused and my water broke on the day they wanted to induce me and I ended up on pit anyway like you. The dr thought I was nuts for not begging for an induction at 39 weeks.
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Kate, Ren's Mom Reply:
April 20th, 2011 at 6:19 pm (Quote)
If you don’t mind me asking, why start pit so soon after SROM?
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Megan Reply:
April 20th, 2011 at 6:24 pm (Quote)
see reply down below.. clicked the wrong button i did.. yep i did.
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devil is in the details Reply:
April 21st, 2011 at 4:33 am (Quote)
Why start Pit so soon, Because they only give you 24 hours from when your water broke, not from when they started the pit. I would have considered it a favor. They didn’t start my Pit until 11 hours after my water broke. Only got to 7 in 20-21 hours. Guess what happened after that.
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This was at Fort Hood at Darnall Army Medical Center in August of 2007. I was originally due like.. August 4th. August 13th i was still pregnant and my induction date was scheduled (after NST) for the 16th IF they had room that morning. (i was told to call and if they didn’t they would have me call back every hour) to come in to be induced. BUT August 14th my water broke, and my son was born almost 24 hours later on August 15th.
i have NO IDEA why they started PIT, nor was it explained to me what it was or why they were doing it. they said (after 2 episodes of 30 minute walking, 30 minute sitting, 30 minute walking) that i was not contracting hard enough and PIT would get it going. . . yaaaa boy it did. and it was a miserable rest of my birth.
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Megan Reply:
April 20th, 2011 at 6:26 pm (Quote)
i guess they did explain why, just not why there were no other options or why it was so urgent to start…
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I will say, their busy schedule wasn’t all their fault. when my mom and husband got there we had to wait in the waiting room for a triage bed to open up. One of the ladies in there was pregnant and on the phone and her conversation went something like this “Oh im about 23 weeks pregnant. i came in to get check. work was too boring today and they wouldnt do an ultrasound at the clinic. “so and so” is also getting checked (who turned out to be less far along then original chick) and we will meet you at Ryans (food place) for lunch as soon as she gets done”… ya… the military is grand XD
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What on earth did women do before inductions? I guess they just stayed pregnant forever…
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Marissa Reply:
April 20th, 2011 at 7:55 pm (Quote)
Yep. No humans were born EVER until pitocin became a standard medical practice. There was a line of women who had been pregnant for tens of thousands of years out the door and down the street waiting to be induced. Those first 24 hours were incredibly busy, and we all know that you must deliver within 24 magical hours of that first contraction or everyone in the world will DIE. There were lots of c-sections that day too because of small pelvis problems and 8lb babies being so huge. About a third of those women waiting to be induced had to have them. Well, some of the lucky pregnant women’s babies were born before pitocin day, but just the lucky ones.
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Doesn’t EVERY pregnant lady go into labor at some point?
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devil is in the details Reply:
April 21st, 2011 at 7:45 am (Quote)
Well, yes except for those babies who never signal labor because they have a serious problem. Which in the back-ass logic of OB’s means if your baby doesn’t signal labor on time then there must be soemthing wrong, therefore we must do something. And as a result they have decreased the in uterine death rate of babies because they are getting to the ones in trouble. Unfortunatley, two things happen that they aren’t taking into consideration 1) some of those babies died a few days or weeks later thus shifting the responsiblty from the OB to the NICU and 2) They are pushing the risk date back from 42 weeks to 39 w 6 days thus also increasing problems in other areas. Obsteric medicine desparately needs a balance between the big picture and the details, but they have no system in place.
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Fern Reply:
April 21st, 2011 at 2:52 pm (Quote)
Not always 
I have had three births induced due to PPROM. My mebranes rupture, and nothing happens. With my second son they ruptured at 34 weeks. I chilled out in hospital on anti-bs for four weeks so he could continue to develop and grow, and was eventually induced at 38 weeks. I truly believe my body just doesn’t have a clue what to do unfortunately, I’ve never even had a braxton hick :-/
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Full Moon Mama had this to say,
Jun 3, 2011 @ 6:23 pm (Quote)
This ones mine. I was adamantly opposed to induction for postdates (without an actual, medical indication) but my GP insisted I “get on the [induction] list anyways”. That meant I’d have a BPP and see the resident OB. When the OB said that to me, my first thought was, “lucky? wouldn’t that just make me *normal*?” It left me rather flabbergasted. Do these OBs really think that the majority of women have broken bodies?
Anyways, three days later I was called me at 6 am to come in for my induction. The L&D nurse who called made it sound like I had just won the lottery. I said, “no thanks” and rolled over and went back to sleep. I eventually did go into labour on my own at 42w1d. I had a quick, natural hospital birth. Baby was perfectly healthy and the placenta showed no signs of calcification. My doctor then started questioning my dates, and even rechecked my 1st tri u/s. My dates were spot on, since I’d been charting my cycles.
That was my first baby. My second baby was born this past March, at 42w3d, at home with a midwife. Also perfectly healthy, with a perfectly healthy placenta.
My husband likes to joke that I have a slow cooker (well, he actually says “crotch pot” but that’s not really polite).
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Well, at least the resident acknowledged that inductions stink.
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