Yep... Getting Induced.

Yesterday (Thursday) I had a non-stress test and little baby looks and acts wonderfully healthy and has more than enough fluid to swim in. David and I also got to chat with the midwife Beth for quite a while about all our options, since I'll be 42 weeks on Tuesday. 

Yes. I discovered since my previous, cynical post that according to my first and most accurate ultrasound, I really was 40 weeks on December 17th. The only logical conclusions are that 1) I either take longer to make babies or 2) some kind of deeply embedded fear is keeping me from going into labor (Ina May).

David's mom put it well when she said that I have been "striving" a lot in this pregnancy, fighting for a VBAC. Reading and researching and persuading and explaining to friends and family... Also dreading possible fights with either a Dr or nurse during delivery or at appointments. 

Above is me at the appointment, in my favorite humongously tacky Snoopy shirt.

Anyway about my appointment yesterday. Beth Bary says that the risk of stillbirth goes up after 42 weeks and honestly, I know that it's the OBs who oversee them that stick to the 42 week rule and make that the method of the whole practice. 

But according to Marsden Wagner, MD MS in Born in the USA, it was a study done in 1963 using data from 1958 that reported the number of babies dying in utero increased slightly after 42 weeks and significantly after 43 (94). At that time they began inducing women at 42. Then in 1982 and 89, "more sound research was published that found no significant increase in neonatal mortality rates after forty-two weeks and only a slight increase after forty-three weeks..." (94). Again in 1996, "a valid study was published that looked at 1,800 post-date pregnancies (...beyond 42 weeks) and found no increase in baby deaths as well as no increase in complications compared with births of babies born 'on time' at between thirty-eight and forty-two weeks" (95). 

He goes on to say smaller studies show that inducing post date pregnancies vs. waiting for spontaneous labor showed a slight decrease in C-sections, but does not show inductions to decrease harm to babies. Throughout explanations of these studies Dr. Wagner mentions a bandwagon of fear that OBs ride which is going so fast that no one gets off. That fear of still born babies and the consequences of that on the Drs career causes them to overreact and induce earlier than needed, ironically "with a powerful drug that has serious risks for both the woman and the baby" i.e. Pitocin (95), which I'm hopefully not using. 

So my induction is scheduled for Sunday night Dec 29th (41 wks and 5 days) with a balloon catheter, which will push my cervix open to dilate and hopefully start contractions. If not, then a tiny dose of Pitocin could get them started and then be turned off. Not sure if I will consent to Pit or not, though knowing that my only other option is a C-section may push me that way if it comes to it.

Whether or not to induce was always a resounding NO to me during this entire pregnancy. But that's because I believed, I knew that my body would go into labor on it's own before Christmas, before I even hit 41 weeks. My basis for this belief was that my mom went into labor at this time with both me and my brother. But apparently I'm different than my mom in this way. Very different! 

What I mentioned above, the "striving", the stress, my previous post about not enjoying this pregnancy so much, all of this factors greatly into why I am consenting to an induction. I am ready to be done striving and just enjoy my son. I stand by what I've always said, that birth is a means to an end, not an end in itself. I wasn't doing this for the birth experience (though that is well worth it) so much as for my health and the health of future children and pregnancies. I did not have a traumatic C-section experience with Carson and had no trouble bonding with him, nursing him and being overwhelmed in motherly love for him! I still am every day :) (except he is weaned now, lol) Thus, unlike many VBAC moms, I am not militantly fighting for spontaneous labor in order to have a healing birth. I also see no point in dying on the battlefield of whether or not to induce when the method of induction to be used on me is not hormonal and was the means to successful VBACs for both my doula Jami and my friend Madi. I know the facts, that my baby would be safe to come on his own in the near future. He may or may not. 

But I'm not in the mood to fight two OBs in order to go past 42 weeks, and then go into labor and birthing fighting tooth and nail. If anything would cause a traumatic, stressful birth, that would be it for me. I have a few admirable friends that can easily stand up against people and still give birth naturally. They can easily handle the pressure. I can't. This is where I draw the boundary line because I know myself and my limits better than anyone. Being pressured or pushed into fighting with these Drs is not what I want or need right now. And this practice, this hospital, is the best I can get. The most "VBAC friendly" around. 

I've reached the end of my rope, and ask for prayers and possibly a miracle that this baby decides it's time to arrive on his own this weekend! Labor that starts from my own delicate balance of hormones is the best, but it will mean absolutely nothing and cause me to have my first traumatic birth experience if I am yelling and screaming with MDs and CNMs.