Hire a doula to avoid an induction!
There is an epidemic of inductions occuring in the United States and Canada right now. The Listening To Mothers II Survey found that, “More than four out of ten respondents (41%) indicated that their caregiver tried to induce their labor. When asked if the induction caused labor to begin, more than four out of five of those women (84%) indicated that it did, resulting in an overall provider induction rate of 34%.”
(You can read more about it at http://www.childbirthconnection.org/pdfs/LTMII_report.pdf)
At the end of pregnancy these days, there are a host of potential reasons your caregiver might suggest an induction. UNLESS YOU HAVE SOMEONE TO TALK TO about it, you are likely to go along with the suggestion. Think about it: at 38 weeks, most of us feel DONE with being pregnant. We’re ready to meet our babies! So when someone offers to make that happen, like, tomorrow, it’s hard to resist. Especially if they add a medical-sounding reason to the idea.
But the fact is that most women do not grow babies too large to birth and most women have plenty of amniotic fluid. But these reasons to induce are offered to many, many, many women nowadays. It’s just not possible that 41% of North American women have suddenly developed narrower pelves and have less amniotic fluid. We have more information (like estimates of amniotic fluid levels) because of more technology. But more information is not leading us to make better decisions. Instead, our caregivers feel compelled to give us the information and the “worst-case scenario” associated with that information. That worst-case scenario is likely to sway us toward induction.
But if we are able to wait a few hours, breathe, relax, think it all through, we can make the decision that is right for us. Of course, there are some situations that call for an induction. But there are many, many more that do not.
Here’s where your doula comes in. Your doula will not be able to give you medical advice and she will not be able to make the decision for you. But she can offer help in YOUR decision-making process. She can ask questions. She can point you to resources. She can connect you with other women who have faced similar dilemmas who might be willing to share their wisdom. She can tell you stories. She can suggest a long list of natural induction methods you might try before going the medical route. She can guide you to think through how you might feel if this induction turns into either an epidural or a cesarean.
In short, she can help you make your best decision. It might be that the best decision is to induce. It might not. However, talking your decision over with your doula — someone who knows your birth plan, your birth vision, your birth dreams — will help you have peace of mind.
I run mom-and-baby groups in my hometown. So many new mothers come to our group with great sadness and regret about how their labors went. They say, “If only I had known…” a lot. A doula is like insurance against regret. She helps you make your decision fully and consciously so that, no matter what happens later, you have confidence that you made the right decision to begin with.
[P.S. Why does avoiding an induction matter? Because when women are induced, a host of other interventions often follow (called “The Cascade). A common drug for induction, Pitocin, makes contractions feel more painful. FOr a woman planning a natural birth, this can really get in the way! But even for a woman planning an epidural, Pitocin contractions in early labor can be a problem. If you get an epidural before active labor really kicks in, your labor can be long and slow. But if you wait until active labor is really going, you will probably have to weather some significant, unplanned-for pain. In other words, no matter what kind of birth you are planning, Pitocin gets in your way. (If you want to read more about this, I refer you to either Henci Goer’s book “The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth” or my book “Natural Hospital Birth.” Both of these books talk about Pitocin in detail.)
Another important reason to avoid induction is that the rise in induction rates corresponds with a rising rate of babies born prematurely. If our dates are off (which they often are!) we could be asking our babies to be born a few weeks too soon. Nature has a fabulous plan for your baby’s birthday. Let a doula help you avoid an unnecessary induction and discover your baby’s “real” birthday!]
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