Jun 2

Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.

“Why Haven’t We Induced You Yet?”

Why haven’t we induced you yet?” – OB to mother who was 4 cm dilated at 39 weeks.

56 people dislike these words.

There are 27 comments to this post.

Bonita had this to say, Jun 2, 2012 @ 5:17 pm (Quote)

Why haven’t you learned to use your brain yet?

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Rebecca had this to say, Jun 2, 2012 @ 5:31 pm (Quote)

Because it seems I’m doing a fantastic job all on my own so far!

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Luann Reply:
June 2nd, 2012 at 5:39 pm Luann(Quote)

right?!

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Lisa had this to say, Jun 2, 2012 @ 5:34 pm (Quote)

Because this baby isn’t done cooking yet.

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Luann had this to say, Jun 2, 2012 @ 5:39 pm (Quote)

i do not think you know the meaning of this word, “induce”…

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Jenni had this to say, Jun 2, 2012 @ 6:20 pm (Quote)

yeah, um, i was sitting at a 5-6 with my son for 5 days, and when he decided to come it was a pretty easy labor, if someone had suggested inducing me i’d probably have ask if they were off their rocker, clearly i was able to progress and doing well, experiencing no complications, why would they want to mess with that?

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Trisha had this to say, Jun 2, 2012 @ 6:35 pm (Quote)

“‘cuz I’m not yet at my EDC yet. Ya know, the day my placenta explodes”

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Jane had this to say, Jun 2, 2012 @ 6:50 pm (Quote)

Because I denied consent.

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Jane had this to say, Jun 2, 2012 @ 6:55 pm (Quote)

Okay, this is my second thought: the doctor said “Why haven’t we induced you yet?” and most answers above are reasons why the mom denied consent. It wasn’t until after I hit post that I realized that’s where we’re making our mistake with these doctors. We’re offering reasons. No, we have the POWER in this situation because the doctor requires our consent in order to induce etc. (Or they’ll have to get a court order proving us mentally incompetent, which I know some will do, but for the most part, it’s not worth the trouble just to induce at term.)

When we give a doctor a reason such as “The baby isn’t done cooking yet” or “I’m dilating just fine on my own,” the doctor hears it as a reason to argue. We cannot give them that.

Doctor: Why haven’t we induced you yet?
Woman: Because I’ve denied consent.
Doctor: Why did you deny consent?
Woman: Because that’s what I did.
Doctor: But why?
Woman: Do you have a medical indication of distress? If so, tell me about it.

Put the burden on the doctor. The doctor will then say, “The risks rise dramatically at 42 weeks, so every minute we wait, your baby is one minute closer to a tragic and preventable death,” and the woman can say, “Thank you for being clear with me. Do you have any other questions?”

We don’t *need* to discuss “treatments” that are purely optional. We can just deny consent and move along.

Doctor: But I’d really like to have you induced soon.
Woman: I understand that. You’ve made that very clear.
Doctor: So you’ll come in on Tuesday?
Woman: No, I’m still denying consent. But you made your medical recommendation very clear.

They can’t’ argue with a reason you never told them.

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Knitted in the Womb Reply:
June 2nd, 2012 at 8:17 pm Knitted in the Womb(Quote)

You are EXACTLY right Jane! Put the Dr. in the position of having to justify the intervention, don’t have the mom justifying why she doesn’t want it.

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Rebeccadawn Reply:
June 3rd, 2012 at 12:37 am Rebeccadawn(Quote)

Thank you for this, Jane!

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Sam Reply:
June 3rd, 2012 at 7:33 am Sam(Quote)

Jabe, please blog this so I can share it all over the internet. Thanks. !! :-O

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Ella had this to say, Jun 2, 2012 @ 7:05 pm (Quote)

oh gosh. With my first when after one day past due date I didn’t start labor, they gave me the “old baby skin look” talk and scared me into other stuff, so I got induced. Gosh that hurt a ton, for a lot longer time.

So I hope the mom didn’t let them induce her. Huge mistake to do so.

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Becky had this to say, Jun 2, 2012 @ 7:51 pm (Quote)

The real question, “Is why would you? Are you encouraging me to do something that increases my and my baby’s risk for complications – when I haven’t even passed your all knowing due date yet?”

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Lorraine had this to say, Jun 2, 2012 @ 10:01 pm (Quote)

“Why should you? After all I am perfectly healthy and haven’t yet reached that magical average of 40wks and I’m already almost half way dilated with still a week to go. So when I do go into labour you better get your skates on as by time I finally get to the hospital it is entirely possible that baby might be coming out without ANY intervention. Or shock, horror, I might just decide to not come in at all!” Some OB’s really need to screw their heads on before they open their mouth!

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Kathryn Reply:
June 3rd, 2012 at 5:29 pm Kathryn(Quote)

I know a lot of women who were significantly dilated (4+cm) prior to the onset of labor. Most of their doctors wanted to induce (actually, in one case, the doctor said “You’re in labor and didn’t even know it! So go over to L&D so you can get hooked up to pitocin so your baby can be born.”), and most of those women were induced.

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head here. I the doctor believes that out-o-hospital birth is dangerous (and most do think that), and the doctor also knows that a particular mom might have a short labor because she is already dilated to 4cm before labor, then the doctor believes him/herself to be acting in the best interest of mother and baby by suggesting induction.

I think it’s a bad reason to induce, but I think that’s the thought process of a lot of doctors in this situation.

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Kathryn Reply:
June 3rd, 2012 at 8:06 pm Kathryn(Quote)

*If* the doctor believes. Sorry.

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Sarah had this to say, Jun 3, 2012 @ 4:41 am (Quote)

*looks out window*

“No flying pigs yet. Sorry Doc.”

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Ashley had this to say, Jun 3, 2012 @ 8:47 am (Quote)

I was a 3-4 at 36wks with my 3rd baby. My doc let me keep going and I was walking around at a 4-5 at 38wks. My family kept asking why my doc didn’t just break my water and let me have the baby (we had already make it weeks longer than we thought we were going to!) but my doc just kept saying that she had no reason to induce me so she was just going to leave well enough alone.

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C.Pratt Reply:
June 3rd, 2012 at 10:54 am C.Pratt(Quote)

Family and friends like that are exactly what perpetuates the culture expectation that induction is harmless. I can’t tell you of a single time where someone I knew (myself included) was nearing thier duedate and the question of “when are you being induced” wasn’t bandied around by a half dozen non-medical people. They cleary don’t understand the risks involved with induction. It makes me mad every.single.time.

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SuzyHomemaker Reply:
June 3rd, 2012 at 11:25 am SuzyHomemaker(Quote)

Same here. “When are you being induced?” and “Have you scheduled your c-section yet?”
Dear lord, NO! And why the heck would I? Especially when everything is going perfectly fine on its own!

I also knew a woman whose baby died around 39 weeks and she opted to be induced for a vaginal delivery. A mutual friend of ours couldn’t understand why she would put herself through a vaginal birth for a dead baby. She just couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that a c-section would be more dangerous, take longer to heal from, and might cause complications for future children.

Its sad really that our culture sees nothing of cutting open a person’s vital organs when its not medically necessary or even when its unwanted.

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lilmrsmchenry Reply:
June 5th, 2012 at 8:55 am lilmrsmchenry(Quote)

I get the c-section a lot. I am pregnant with my 6th and it is apparently unheard of that I wouldn’t have had one yet. Then of course, “Once a c-section, always a c-section.”
My second was stillborn at 35 weeks (placental infarction in case anyone was wondering) and some people are baffled as to why I would count that pregnancy and birth. I ask them why it would count any less then someone who gave birth to a late term preemie? In that case though, I did accept pitocin and an epidural to help it be as quick and painless as it could be under the circumstances.

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Kate Reply:
June 3rd, 2012 at 4:20 pm Kate(Quote)

I think this is because we as a culture have turned childbirth into a medical event that is performed by doctors (rather than a bodily function performed by the mother at the right time). So it makes sense that labor MUST start with an action on the part of the doctors, like any other treatment or surgery. Waiting for the body doesn’t make sense when pregnancy is viewed as a pathology.

If we could remind people that childbirth is a normal bodily function (albeit one with attendant risks), they would start to understand that it makes no more sense to expect an OB to routinely “deliver” the baby any time after 37 weeks than it would to schedule a daily enema rather than simply move one’s bowels naturally.

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Ashley Reply:
June 3rd, 2012 at 7:49 pm Ashley(Quote)

I totally get what you are saying! Usually my family (at least most of them) are all for just going as long as it takes. This time, they knew how uncomfortable I was (went into labor at 22wks with an IU, would get stuck in contractions that would last five minutes on average, and was bigger around than most women having twins, in the dead of summer) and they were scared that I would go into labor when I was alone with my two older boys. Hubby had just started a new job and was working 2nd shift. I was alone most nights and being that far along with my previous births being just blinks before baby arrived (first labor 5hrs at 36wks, second was 3 hours at 34wks and then this guy was 59min at the end of 38wks, babies all happy and healthy, no NICU time!!!), they were scared I would be alone with no way to get to the hospital. I was apprehensive about being alone with the boys and delivering at home unassisted, esp if baby came earlier, but I knew that I could do if need be. They however are still of the mindset that all babies NEED to be born in a hospital in order to be born safely.

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