Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Dec
14
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“…I’m Not Going To Induce You Today. I Have Plans Tonight…”
“No, honey, you’re still not dialated. I’m not going to induce you today. I have plans tonight. Come back tomorrow night and we’ll start you then.” – OB to mother at 39 weeks who had been told to report for an induction.
There are 26 comments to this post.
road2vba2c had this to say,
Dec 14, 2011 @ 4:46 am (Quote)
Yeah, I would’ve had someone’s head. That would’ve been the *only* time he got me at the hospital for an induction too. What a jerk.
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Alyson Miers had this to say,
Dec 14, 2011 @ 6:13 am (Quote)
Sure, get Mama all excited to see her baby/anxious to get induced and quite possibly sectioned, and once she’s made her arrangements and gotten herself to the hospital, call her “Honey” and tell her to come back tomorrow. What a disgusting waste of her time.
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Why is it that a surgeon in any other field would need to come in from whatever they’re doing to do their jobs (heart surgery, appendectomy, etc.) but an OB can just assign them whenever s/he wants? Oh, maybe it’s because most of them are just doing what’s convenient for them instead of using evidence based care to “manage” pregnancy and labor of their patients. I hope this OP was able to just go home and wait for spontaneous labor, considering there appears to be no real reason for being induced.
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Details Reply:
December 14th, 2011 at 11:13 am (Quote)
I’m not so sure your assumption is correct. I know someone who was diagnosed with cancer mid November and wasn’t scheduled for surgery until just before New Years. She lost the entire organ because the maligancy had grown to the size of a volleyball. So yes, other doctors do try to schedule their lives to the patient’s detriment.
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If this doc had said. “You aren’t dilated so we aren’t even going to try this, You are only 39 weeks. Come into the office at 40 weeks (or in 3 days or something) and we will see if you are favorable yet. Then we will make plans.” That would have been fine. Well, except for the fact that there is apparently no reason to even be inducing in the first place.
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Rach had this to say,
Dec 14, 2011 @ 4:48 pm (Quote)
I’m just happy she gets another 24 hours to labour on her own! Wish Dr had lots more evening plans….
In UK where I work we induce 40+12, anything else needs a medical reason but we have one Dr…so often written in the book next to a woman’s name at say 40+3 saying “Dr so&so request” as the medical reason! Makes me cross, looking forward to their retirement!
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Oh, so the induction wasn’t medically necessary?
Hang on, I want you to repeat that to the nice man at the health insurance company.
Also: I’m not coming back to the hospital unless I am actually in labor or there is an unforeseen emergency like a car crash.
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Kris had this to say,
Dec 15, 2011 @ 2:20 am (Quote)
Oh yeah. That would’ve been his ass. Apparently that doc has never seen pregnancy rage. Had that been me I guarantee he would never pull that s*@# again.
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detail Reply:
December 16th, 2011 at 1:20 pm (Quote)
Kris, what you just said can be taken two ways. Did you mean that if you had come in at 39 weeks for a convience induction and been turned away possbily saving your self the misery of a 24 hour induction followed by an extra fun because you are totally exhausted c-section that you would throw a fit because you didn’t get what you had ordered? Or did you mean if somebody was jerking you around and telling you to show up, no go home, but show up again tomorrow that you would tell him to go to hell and get in your car and go to “visit your mother” in the next state before you would set foot anywhere near such an asshat again? I’m voting for the second one, but I think purple “Your Name” below took it as the first and I think her comments might be directed at you. And frankly for anyone who is trying to get a convience induction I agree with Your Name. You should thank your lucky stars you didn’t get the induction from hell followed by general anesiathia c-section.
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Kris had this to say,
Dec 16, 2011 @ 2:22 pm (Quote)
detail – Aww man you’re name definitely fits lol because you analyzed the hell outta my comment lol. Yes I just meant because he was being a jerk and me being pregnant at the moment, I get angry pretty quick. It’s been ugly. As for the other commenter, I’m gonna need you to calm the hell down and worry about your own body and baby. Some of the women on here are too damn opinionated about what STRANGERS are doing with their own bodies. Sit back and breathe for a second and realize….you’re opinion doesn’t matter. (BTW, I’ve never been induced 
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1) Doctor not communicating with office staff
2) Doctor admitting mom is being induced for no reason, if she can be put off for pre-existing plans on a doctor’s on-call night
3) Why is the doctor making plans for an on-call night?
4) Doctor calling the mom “honey”
5) Doctor ignoring the plans mom has already had to make for her own childcare etc because they are by definition (to the doctor) less important than the plans the doctor made for his or her own on-call night
Have I missed anything?
BTW, it’s possible this doctor recognizes unconsciously that moms who are unready for induction don’t induce easily and therefore the doctor is unwilling to get started. I imagine if Doctor A in a practice is induction-happy and Doctor B is a junior doctor who always gets stuck with Doctor A’s “failed inductions” that Doctor B would be kind of ticked off about that and might try to keep the women from being unnecessarily induced. But there’s no reason to put the patients in the middle.
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Linda Reply:
December 14th, 2011 at 4:47 am Linda(Quote)
I agree completely that she shouldn’t have been induced. But how inconsiderate to tell her to come in and then send her home! Typical doctor attitude – thinks his time is more important than hers.
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Jane Reply:
December 14th, 2011 at 5:17 am Jane(Quote)
Total agreement.
I don’t know if it’s a “typical” doctor attitude, but it seems to be this doctor’s attitude. :-b
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Sheva Reply:
December 14th, 2011 at 7:32 am Sheva(Quote)
Doctor schedules inductions for the nighttime – when mom should be SLEEPING.
Doctor should have called mom if doc’s schedule changed ([most] docs are people too). Doc should not have waited until mom came in and then sent her home.
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Jane Reply:
December 14th, 2011 at 7:36 am Jane(Quote)
Oh, that’s just wrong! I didn’t realize inductions were scheduled at night. The one time I had to be induced (and I did have to) they had me come into the hospital at 10:00 in the morning. I figured the doctor was saying “I have plans for tonight” and it was 8 in the morning, so the doctor was figuring it wouldn’t be an easy induction and didn’t want to start something that wouldn’t be ended by 5pm.
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Sheva Reply:
December 14th, 2011 at 7:50 am Sheva(Quote)
It said ‘tomorrow night’ in the original post.
Not all inductions are at night. My friend’s doc scheduled hers (and this is common) at 6AM. ?!?!?!
She told the doc not to bother scheduling, as she wasn’t interested and wouldn’t be going in for it. Doc still scheduled it, my friend went into labor before that, and the doc was still pissed at her for not showing up for the induction.
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Darsy Reply:
December 14th, 2011 at 8:27 am Darsy(Quote)
I’ve heard about that happening so many times (the doctor being actually MAD at a mother for going into labor prior to an induction) and it never fails to make me RAGE. What on EARTH would make that kind of ridiculous behavior not only okay, but happening all over the place?! ARGH.
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Kasondra Reply:
December 14th, 2011 at 12:00 pm Kasondra(Quote)
Spontaneous labor is out of doctor control and how dare a mother try to have control over her OWN body?! She is NOT a professional and NOT cleared for something like that! What happens if her water breaks on its own? The doctor can’t charge for use of a hook. If her contractions are regular they can’t charge for pitocin. How inconsiderate of her…
[/sarcasm]
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C.Pratt Reply:
December 14th, 2011 at 12:52 pm C.Pratt(Quote)
Oh, they will do their best to use (and charge for) the amnihook and pitocen whether labor starts spontaneously or not.
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Kristy Reply:
December 14th, 2011 at 1:44 pm Kristy(Quote)
Yep… with my first I was scheduled to be induced and came in already in labor. They gave me pit anyway. I was a ‘good patient’ back then… I didn’t even know they had given it till 7 yrs later when I was expecting number two. I went and got a copy of my records.
It wasn’t really a ‘tramatic’ birth but I knew I wanted to do things differently and getting the records was a big step for me. I needed ‘closure’ there and needed to feel I had taken control back in some small way.
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Toni Reply:
December 15th, 2011 at 7:16 am Toni(Quote)
“I didn’t realize inductions were scheduled at night. ”
It depends on the induction. If all you need is Pitocin (your cervix is already ripe) then you will come in in the morning; if (like with my first) you need a cervical ripening agent first (at 42 weeks there had been no cervial change) then you come in at night and they administer the prostaglandin (those can take twelve hours, or more, to work). So it really depends on where the mother is at. If it is elective, which this apparently was, then it is best to wait until the cervix has ripened of its own accord, if you bother inducing at all…
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Jen Reply:
December 16th, 2011 at 8:05 am Jen(Quote)
It also depends on the doctor and his/her scheduling preferences. In my area, some doctors have their patients come in at midnight to start Pit, so they can do their deliveries in the morning (since we all know women dilate EXACTLY 1cm/hr) and have afternoons free for appointments. Others have them come in at 5:00am for afternoon deliveries. A few do 9:00am inductions for early evening deliveries. That assumption backfired on my OB, who induced me at 5:00. I delivered at 9:30 unassisted while he careened through traffic.
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