what's with this trend of starting labor < 40 weeks? - Page 6

[ilovebeingamom]

Just the fact that this thread is so long speaks to the fact what a problem this is. Almost all of the mom's I know around here were either induced or had elective c/s. A mom that I know that is due July 6 is being induced today, as a matter of fact.

My sister's water broke at 36 weeks, and they only let her try to labor on her own for about two hours before they told her she needed pitocin or the baby could get infection. It was annoying, b/c I had just talked to her and told her she had at least 18-24 hours minimum before she needed anything to "start" contractions. But what do I know?

I get so sick of hearing about it as well. Just another way to tell women that their bodies don't work and are inferior. I wish women would get more educated!

[copslass]

Great question!

I have not read through the other responses, so forgive me if I seem a bit off beat here!

I don't know, but it really pi$$es me off! Perhaps because first time inductions result in in a higher-paid c-section 50% of the time? That's how I was in the OR for my first, long ago.That's one theory I have, anyway.

Tonight, mil stopped by dd's softball game and mentioned an acquaintance (sil's friend) who is expecting. Told me she'd been to the doc and is 1cm dialated. I asked when she's due, and it's not for over another month! I wondered aloud, couldn't help myself, "WHY is she having a vaginal exam at eight months??!!" Mil seemed bothered by my observation. Oh, well. I then offered that it sounds like doc is preparing for an early induction.

No one else seems to care, why do I?!

[Aura_Kitten]

. Told me she'd been to the doc and is 1cm dialated. I asked when she's due, and it's not for over another month! I wondered aloud, couldn't help myself, "WHY is she having a vaginal exam at eight months??!!" Mil seemed bothered by my observation. Oh, well. I then offered that it sounds like doc is preparing for an early induction.

i was dilated to 1 cm for over a month w/ my first.

they did VE's at every appointment. :

[BoobyJuice]

"WHY is she having a vaginal exam at eight months??!!"

I was thinking the same exact thing as I read your message. I never had one before labor - guess because I've had two with midwives. They figured I'd go into labor when I did. (Well I did have one but that was to see if everything was A-OK after I bled a little) I have friends who know to what cm they are dialated, how efaced (sp?) they are, and at what station the babies head is. I always end up telling them they may have the baby in an hour and it may be another month! Why do they tell women all this stuff? The minute you tell a lot of them anything is happening they think the baby will be there in a few hours.

[copslass]

Klothos, that's awful! So much for evidence-based care, eh?

Here's the difference between care by (real) midwives vs. surgeons, boobyjuice.

And as you said, once a dr starts talking dialation, mom thinks it'll be any minute and starts anticipating birth way ahead of time. Sets the stage for early induction rather nicely, doesn't it? Yep, very effective.

Otoh, if mom's cervix is still closed, she's likely to begin thinking that her body isn't working properly. Then the medical stage is also set up. : I think I hear dramatic music in the background...

[Messy Nessie]

y'know... I LOVE this thread! I had NO IDEA that VEs weren't necessary! My OB started doing them when I started having my weekly visits at 32 weeks. uke I hated it, but I had no idea that she didn't have to do it.

And let me tell you, they caused me a ton of stress... At one point she incorrectly told me DD was breech and I had been so sure that she was not from the sweet hiccups I felt. She ended up being wrong, as the next day my blood pressure spiked dangerously high and I had to go in for a NST b/c I was diagnosed with PIH and we saw DD head down on the U/S. But talk about misery and worry for a night.

Wow, what an empowered and knowledgable mama I will be next time around! (Not that we're going the OB route again, tho!)

[NaturalFamiLEA]

I think it's terible :

[Mamid]

Speaking of PIH, on another board, this woman at 38 weeks is being induced this week because of it. Her BP is 130/88. Gez.. mine was 145/90 and my OB didn't induce me and I was starting to dilate and it wouldn't have taken much to get me to go a few days early. (DS was born 39W2d. This was at 38W6d he took my bp) I had an elephant leg, swelling in my arms, starting to swell in my face. I should have been induced. The stress of the last weeks of pregnancy were taking a toll on my health and being in constant "false labour" wasn't helping at all!

Nope. he blamed it on the heat. Sure the summer heat aggravated it, but so did an OB who was arrogant, mysogynistic, and refused to listen to the complaints of his patient nor believed when she was due! He pushed my due date into September, 2 days before my current due date and refused to believe my charting OR that I took clomid. DS was born before the original 6w US EDD, nevermind my Ovulation EDD (the same day!).

Stupid ignorant ass.

Worse yet - he changed the criteria that I had to match (and never did) to come in. I almost had an unassisted at home! Two hours and 15 minutes from the time we left for the hospital, 1 hr and 43 minutes after we arrived, I had DS. And I was supposed to get at least 1 full dose of GBS antibiotics 4hrs or more before the birth.

If my son had spent any time in the Nicu for the post partum fever he got the ob would have been sued. So he's damn lucky for that. If he had induced me 2 days earlier, he could have gotten the antibiotics in me, gotten my son born with a full proper dose and I wouldn't have had a post partum fever either.

So on one hand, obs are erring on the side of caution and on the other, they are recklessly endangering lives.

No wonder I hate them so frelling much!

[aquarianangela]

this is one of my #1 aggravations.
patients come in all the time asking to be induced for the illness SOBP (sick of being pregnant).
and unfortunately the practice i am in is very intervention oriented.
having struggled so long to get pg (mc, ivf twice and then delivered at 32 weeks with classical cs) and having recently had another mc i cannot imagine wanting to end a pg prematurely. what i would have given to keep my baby in me (esp since i may never have another pg) and feel her move inside me- it is such a precious thing. i try to be empathic with my patients but it is so hard for me to be compassionate about being tired of being pregnant.
my experience is once you start one intervention you are on what my dh and i call the "downward spiral of interventions".
okay now i am all depressed because i miss being pregnant and only got to experience it for such a short time. oh well just wanted to throw in the perspective from my view.FWIW i don't induce people willy nilly but i feel forced to go along with the rest of my practice sometimes esp if i am not that pt's regular ob so as not to stir up trouble and i can't afford to get fired or let go.

[Teensy]

(Hi Anglea! Good to see someone else from my area on-line!)

One of my friends is going to be induced on Thursday at 6:30 am. - her doctor suggested it since the doctor will be on-call that day. She will be less than 40 weeks and has been having no problems. I just don't get it! I've tried to keep my comments very light, but I can't imagine risking further interventions or complications without some reason other than your doctor being on-call.

Update: She had her induction and everything went well, so that's good! I also learned that her doctor is in the same practice as Angela (the poster above) - small world!!!!