Sigh. After a little research over the past couple of days, I'm no longer so keen on the idea of medical induction.
In my excited naivete, I just assumed Wednesday's induction would be a quick and easy jump-start to the labor process. And it very well may be.
Or not.
Turns out there's a lot of debate over pitocin inductions, the kind we're talking about for Wednesday. Most alarming for me are two things: (1) Pitocin often makes contractions much more intense and painful than they may have been without the synthetic hormone, and laboring through without an epidural is much less likely following a pitocin induction. (2) The rate of emergency c-section is dramatically higher for medically induced labor (because of fetal distress the intense/fast contractions can cause), as compared to labor that begins and progresses without pitocin.
Gulp.
So I'll spend much of this weekend practicing all the tricks I can to try to induce labor naturally. Found a new one, today, too: acupressure.
Hopefully I'm worked up over something I won't have to worry about after all.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Will they do a prostaglandin gel first to help ripen the cervix and hopefully induce labor? I wasn't keen on being induced either and was very glad Landon decided a few days before to come out. The last thing on our list...get the car seat inspected and later that night sure enough labor started! Good luck Liz!
Jess -- likely won't do the gel, since my cervix is already effaced, "stretchable" and favorable. It's just not dilating. But it's out of my hands, so we'll just do the best with whatever comes.
Thanks for the good wishes!!
Post a Comment