The more I am around birth the more I have opportunity to see that these interventions we have can be both blessings and curses to laboring mothers.  The more I am around birth the more I see births that truly did need medical intervention.    And on the flip side the more I am around birth, the more I see births that certainly could have done without so much fiddling.

And so I get to Christine’s post on Pitocin.  I think it’s great because it cautions parents not to  blindly enter into an elective induction or augmentation simply for the sake of time when mama and baby are both doing fine.  I have supported labors where the labor was progressing just fine and the OB ordered Pit simply because that’s how she rolls, and then watched as the baby quickly became distressed.  I have also supported labors where a little Pit at the end of a long labor kept the mom out of the OR by giving her body the nudge it needed to finish well.

So to all you pregnant women check out the link, learn a little about Pit, watch the video clip and then file that info away for your labor or your discussions about inducing your labor. . .

And to you mama’s who have labored before with Pitocin -  I’d love to know what your experiences with Pit have been.  Love it?  Hate it? Necessary? Unnecesary?

My personal Pit experience was with number two.  I was unnecessarily induced.  I was in early labor and didn’t realize it and was asked to come in for an induction.  At that point in my life I didn’t even think to question the advice so we went home (THAT should have been a clue that the induction was NOT a medical emergency!!) got our stuff and returned for the induction.  Well, I certainly didn’t need it.  Within two hours of starting the Pit, I was in the throes or transition and my dear little daughter was almost born in the elevator on the way to the delivery room.  (She was born overseas in a maternity clinic that had a LABOR floor and a DELIVERY floor.  You have no idea how sensible the whole L&D combo is until you are trying not to birth your baby in the hospital’s elevator!)  I would have much preferred my body’s slower pace because it would have been so much more manageable.   Spreading out all that work over a little more time would have been so much nicer.

So there’s my little trip on Pit.  What’s yours??

Check out the AP’s article here.

The burden of so many cesareans is starting to weigh on more than just the women and families involved.  Regulators are beginning to hold practitioners and hospitals accountable:

Hospitals also will have to report cesareans for first-time mothers, too often a result of a failed induction.

“That’s not a good outcome for the baby or the mom,” says joint commission president Dr. Mark Chassin. “We believe this will be a very important driver of improvement in perinatal care.”

It’s time that those who set the rules and protocols for hospital birth start to realize that unnecessary cesareans are not a good outcome -  as more babies have respiratory problems, moms have much longer and more difficult recoveries while simultaneously caring for a newborn and possibly other small children, and many moms suffer from post-op infections, not to mention many other risks and side-affects of major abdominal surgery.

For more info on inductions check out Henci Goer’s articles on elective induction and due dates. Henci Goer has made combing the medical research for best practices and translating that evidence for the rest of us her life’s work.  She is the author of The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth.

Nursing Birth gives some great advice in her “Don’t Let This Happen to You” series when describing how one couple dealt with an induction.   Nursing Birth accurately describes the birthing climate in many of today’s hospitals and writes from an evidence-based point of view.

Related Posts:

• Do We Even get a Choice?
• One Choice We Make: Where Do We Give Birth?
• Good Things Come to Those Who Wait