Cytotec at homebirths

[Barefooter]

Hi all! I ended up with Cytotec at my homebirth. Has anyone else had this experience?

[crowbaby]

That did not happen to me, but I was wondering about your experience. I have heard very bad things abot Cytotec, and wondered how it went with you. From what I have read, Cytotec is dangerous in a hospital, much less at home. Please fill us in on your birth.

Thanks

Karen :)

[Barefooter]

You can read about my birth at www.birthlove.com under "Take This Pill and Have Your Baby in the Morning."

For the longest time, I thought my homebirth was a "good" one because I thought I had to go through what I did to avoid a cesarean.

Cytotec has NO place in a homebirth.

[fourlittlebirds]

I am just so shocked that a midwife would attempt such a dangerous intervention at home. I've heard of midwives using vacuum extractors at homebirths too. Crazy.

Have you spoken with her since the birth and confronted her with what you now know to be the facts about Cytotec?

[Barefooter]

Have you spoken with her since the birth and confronted her with what you now know to be the facts about Cytotec?

Oh yes, I wrote an email sharing what I learned about Cytotec, sent studies, sent an email expressing my feelings about the birth, etc.
The main midwife did not bother to email me back. Instead, the partner wrote back and basically said that I would have had a cesarean if it were not for them and that I needed to quit second guessing and "lighten up."

[crowbaby]

Karen,


Thank goodness nothing horrific happened. It well could have, as you know. I read your story. Those midwives should be ashamed of themselves. Mine wouldn't even hear of using Castor Oil to start labor. She said, "It will happen when it is supposed to and not before. If you use something (to start labor) before it is supposed to happen you will just make yourself sick." She was so right. By all the interventions that you received, it sounds like you were not ready. How dare they act as if you are uptight! They are dangerous. Thank you for sharing your info. I am still of the opinion that Cytotec shouldn't be used for anything but ulcers.


Karen :)

[Barefooter]

Thank you for sharing your info. I am still of the opinion that Cytotec shouldn't be used for anything but ulcers.


Oh yeah-- I feel exactly the same way!

[darlindeliasmom]

Hey, just shows that you can't trust EVERY midwife. A well-respected midwife in my area has totally gone off the deep end...I know that she used Cytotec on a friend who was attempting a home birth B+VBAC! (Gave her the pill and sent her home...Talk about irresponsible!
Her reply to anyone bringing up the risks: yeah, I've heard about those studies, but I've never had a problem...

[Barefooter]

That really saddens me when I hear stories like that. My biggest fear is that if well know midwives use it, other newere midwives will think it's perfectly ok. :(

[Brigitte&Eitan]

I was so horrified to hear of a homebirth midwife using cytotec. As a homebirth midwife, I can tell you that that is pretty much cause for liscence suspension, and a lawsuit. Cytotec is EXTREMLY DANGEROUS and has caused uterine ruptures. The FDA has not approved of this drug for labor. The whole idea of using drugs to induce labor is against everything homebirth midwives believe in! Fire that midwife!!! :mad:

[Barefooter]

The whole idea of using drugs to induce labor is against everything homebirth midwives believe in! Fire that midwife!!!


I believe the same thing-- that using Cytotec is clearly not midwifery. You can bet that I won't be going near this midwife ever again and hopefully others will stay far away too.

[ebethmom]

:mad: :mad: :mad:
Cytotec!! AGH!!! That is the scariest drug I have ever encountered. Within 10 minutes of ingesting that horrid drug, I had a 6 minute contraction and watched my baby's blood pressure plummet.

Never ever again. My doula had told me that they call those pills "blasting caps." I trusted my doctor and took it anyway.

[MamaMel]

I was also induced by a homebirth midwife with cytotec. My story can be read here http://www.birthlove.com/pages/stories/iain.html It of course ended in a hospital tranfer. Note that I was lied to about what I had been given and that we were told not to tell the hospital staff that I had been induced. At the time we thought that it was just because the hospital frowned upon homebirths, but now I know the real reason why. My midwife who did have rights at the hospital left to attend another birth without telling us. I was supposed to be in the care of the doctors who had no idea that I had been induced with cytotec. At one point they did try to give me pitocin on top of that. Thankfully we said no, but they were happy that we were refusing. Adding pit to the cytotec very well may have killed one of both of us. We were very lucky that the cytotec didn't do that on it's own. It was a full year before I learned what I had been induced with. That whole time I thought that there was something seriously wrong with my body. Why else would I have been having 15 minute contractions?? When I called for my records everything magically disappeared. I got all of my pre-natal info and my post-natal check-ups, but everything having to do with my induction, labor and delievery was missing. Trust no one completely...

[MamaMel]

Note: the above should say that they were not happy that I refused the pit.

[Barefooter]

When I called for my records everything magically disappeared. I got all of my pre-natal info and my post-natal check-ups, but everything having to do with my induction, labor and delievery was missing. Trust no one completely...


{{{{Melody}}}}} I'm sorry you went through this. :( Thank you for sharing your story. Did you ever confront your midwife about the Cytotec and your feelings?

[fourlittlebirds]

I was recently at an ob/gyn list and I couldn't believe my eyes, they were all talking about how SAFE cytotec is, and ACOG is lobbying hard to get the FDA to approve it for labor.

[hawleyclan]

Hi! :( I suspect that they want to get it approved because if they don't there are going to be some REALLY UGLY lawsuits from parents who have had their trust abused, and their bodies and babies endangered... This could turn out to be the OB/GYN version of the Phen-Phen (sp?) thing... Lawyers on every corner soliciting Cytotec victims for a tidal wave of new suits... If I were needing to cover my rear what better way?! :(

Just makes me steaming mad, no regard for the mothers or babies... !!! We have become an industry... sign them in, get the baby out (however is quickest, and most costly), and get them out the door... :( Lord help us... !!

My SIL had a horrible birth, (not due to cytotec, due to Psychodoc...), and a perfect case for litigation- including lots of witnesses and an injured baby- but I understand why she just wanted to put it behind her and move on... new family, new baby, it is hard enough without court costs and hassles... but if a lawyer had offered his services with a no payment unless you win clause I think she would have stepped up to the plate... And that IS what would happen if Cytotec is publicly outlawed for induction, LOTS of malpractice lawyers fishing for Cytotec moms and babies... Would serve them right... :D

Okay, I'm off my soapbox... what a vent... :)

The Lord bless you all,
Zoie :)

[applejuice]

Please everyone be very careful of anything anyone gives you to take when you are pregnant; you and your dear family will live with the results for the rest of your lives. The doctors and midwives move on.

Cytotec is not approved for this use by the FDA and anyone who gives it to you should be reported to the proper authorities.

[applejuice]

After any birth, always get your records immediately! Home, birthcenter, hospital, taxi, anywhere. You never know when you will need them.

[applejuice]

Remember...

There are no, repeat NO, drugs approved for use in pregnancy and labor by the FDA. Copious caveats are issued by the FDA to the administrating physician warning of side effects which the administrating physician never shares with you.

There is nothing new about this.

In the 1940-1970s, doctors gave women a "vitamin pill" to prevent miscarriage. Some were given vitamin pills and others were given Diethylstilbesterol, DES, to prevent miscarriage. Later studies showed that it simply did not work as it was supposed to. The children of these women developed reproductive abnormalities which showed up in adolescence sometimes proving to be cancerous. Many were sterile.

You do not hear much about it today, b/c they are dead or simply came to terms w/ their condition. MOst are "professional patients" who keep their condition monitored. I have other things I like to use my time for other than waiting around a doctor's office to be seen all of the time.

If they were lucky enough to have children, their children often had the same reproductive abnormalities, and were subjected to the same monitoring. Doctors must find this very interesting.

But please learn from this mistake. These people live w/some doctor's mistake which was made before they were born. You also will live w/ some professional's mistake, and they will retire and move away while you sort out the rest of your life.

[Barefooter]

But please learn from this mistake. These people live w/some doctor's mistake which was made before they were born. You also will live w/ some professional's mistake, and they will retire and move away while you sort out the rest of your life.

Believe me, I have learned from this mistake. I have contacted MANA and NARM about this midwife.

Karen

[MysticHealerMom]

Originally posted by Barefooter
You can read about my birth at www.birthlove.com under "Take This Pill and Have Your Baby in the Morning."

Somewhat OT :OT

aparently you have to be a member to do a search on this site. I haven't decided if I want to join that site, yet. I couldn't find your story. I'm sorry for your experience and I agree that cytotec has no place at hb. i can't imagine using any type of labor excellerant @home, including brushing the membranes, but to each their own.

[Charmie981]

It's not true that no drug is approved for use during pregnancy: Pitocin is approved for use to induce labor in pregnant women, but not approved for ELECTIVE induction and now cytotec is listed as an approved labor induction medication as well, scary as that fact is.

My teaching MW's backup OB gave her the option the other day of inducing a patient with cytotec and allowing her to return to the birth center to labor and give birth. She, of course, refused and the client was admitted to the hospital and induced with pitocin b/c her placenta was disentigrating. A MW who would use cytotec w/o the proper means to deal with the consequences of such a dangerous drug is indeed SCARY.

[Barefooter]

aparently you have to be a member to do a search on this site. I haven't decided if I want to join that site, yet. I couldn't find your story. I'm sorry for your experience and I agree that cytotec has no place at hb. i can't imagine using any type of labor excellerant @home, including brushing the membranes, but to each their own.

I have another article posted at Epinions that is similiar:

http://www.epinions.com/content_2044895364

Karen

[MysticHealerMom]

Thanks Karen!

[applejuice]

To Charmie981

Be advised that I said that these drugs are not approved for use in pregnancy and delivery and that the doctor does NOT share the prescribing information w/ the patient when he does use the drug for pregnancy and delivery.

My sister was given cytotec in 1991. It was NOT approved then and it was used anyway in a government hospital. She nearly died, bleeding, as did her son, who ended up at Bethesda, receiving many blood transfusions.

I know doctors give many drugs. Always ask to read the prescibing information; information which the drug companies share w/ the doctors and who do not usually share the information w/ the patient, who lives w/ the results.

[hawleyclan]

Hi! :) or should that be :( ... I was reorganizing my notes from a midiwfery conference earlier this year, and I ran across some interesting information that Ina May Gaskin shared on the subject of induction...

- In the last 10-15 years, the rate of induced labor has gone from 9-12% all the way to 40+%.

- Ruptures (uterine) have occurred with ALL FORMS of hospital induction.

- Physicians are allowed to prescribe medications for off-label use at their discretion.

- Breaking tablets (as in Cytotec doses), is not a safe form of reducing dose since the distribution of the active ingredient in tablets is not uniform, a quarter of a tablet may actually have most of the active ingredient in it and be equivalent to a full dose...

- Cytotec studies are too different, the variables are too many, as to: dosage used, time frames, whether administration was oral/rectal/vaginal, whether placed in the cervix or behind, etc.

- Of under 5000 women given cytotec in studies, 25 had ruptures, 2 maternal deaths, 15 infant deaths, and 8-10 hysterectomies.

- Uterine rupture and artery damage have occurred with Cytotec use. Even 1/4 of a tablet has had horrible results. Death and hysterectomy have occurred, even 13-30 hours after vaginal tablets were given. Hyperstimulation of the uterus can not be regulated with cytotec (unlike pitocin which can be turned off or down).

- There is increased risk of postpartum hemorrhage and amniotic fluid embolism.


I could not feel safe using this product, even if a dosage system could be agreed on, I do not like the fact that it can not be regulated if the mother does have an intense reaction. There is no antidote that can be given to counteract or stop the effect of the drug- you just have to ride it out and hope for the best. :(

That said- there is not a form of medical induction out there that is 100% safe, and all have caused uterine rupture. You just have to make an educated choice if you are in a position of being induced.

Even the "natural" forms of induction can have risks attached. I would go for least invasive and medical first, like sex- nipple stimulation- Evening primrose oil orally and vaginally... then it would be a toss up between a labor stimulating tincture or castor oil (I would not use the full recommended dose though. I would even consider using a different laxative oil such as flaxseed oil...) I'm really not fond of any form of induction, I've been on pitocin- not fun- and we used nipple stimulation to start another of my labors and it was really intense too. Castor oil induction, while close friends have used it with success, they were not happy with the results overall- labors were too fast and hard, some meconium staining...

Sometimes you have to pick out of the options what you can feel most confident with. :)

The Lord bless you,
Zoie :)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Godsbabycatchers

[homebirthing]

It is horrible that you had to go through that. So many women are having uterine ruptures from it. Those will be very good questions to ask future midwifes. My midwife doesn't carry oxygen or pit. That was the decision that I made, to go with her. She trusts in birth completely. I just wanted to tell you also that you can have a wonderful homebirth, please don't let that horrible midwife speak for the whole wonderful midwifery community. I am glad that you are calling those places to tell them about her. Who knows how many people she might have done that too.

[Barefooter]

I am glad that you are calling those places to tell them about her. Who knows how many people she might have done that too.


Sadly, I know of several others who have been subjected to Cytotec from this midwife. :( It's hard to stop someone who is getting referrals from a VBAC author and The Michigan Midwives Association. :(

Karen

[brookelynnp]

Wow I am so shocked at the insensativity of these midwives! Especially mamamels' who actually left her during her labor in the hospital without telling her?! That is just unbelievable and a disgrace to the art of midwifery Please remember that their are a majority of midwives who would never in a million years do that to a client! It makes me so mad and sad that this happened to you! I think that I would have been more spiteful after she left without telling and would have told the medical staff the whole picture. It is one thing to lie about the time of rupture of membranes but to lie and leave you in a dangerous position in a hospital where they wanted to give you pitocin because they didn't know the full story is beyond irresponsible! I am so glad that you knew enough to say no. Would she have left you to go to another birth if you were still at home laboring? I think not she chickened out and abandoned you. I hope that you have or will let her have it some day in writing or a visit to her!

[WriterMama]

*

[applejuice]

I wouldn't ban you.

You discussed the use and knew the possible consequences of using the drug. Fully informed as you could possibly be in that difficult situation.

My problem w/ any drug is that not everyone uses their head.

I can hear it now...
..."you take a chance every time you cross the street."

When you cross the street, you at least look one way and then the other and then decide to cross.

You do not cross the street blind-folded.

Twenty years ago my hb doctor used the amniotic sac puncturer. I did not like it but I understood why he used it.

[brookelynnp]

I too have heard of many great outcomes from the use of cytotec. I geuss every circumstance is different. I did think that most uterine ruptures happened when there was a previous cesarean scar. ANyone heard more of this?

[AutumnMoonfire]

:angry I am so annoyed this is happening. Cytotec is an ulcer drug. One can always turn off or turn down IV Pitocin. I was overseeing an induction for a mom who had lost her baby at 18 weeks. the OB was using cytotec, I raised every objection I could think of, his answer was to order vital signs every 30 minutes while she was in labor! I said that I had heard that it could cause uterine rupture in women who'd had c-sections, he said yes, but she's not term, but couldn't tell me for sure if this made a difference. I am on his sh*t list now let me tell you! The patient did fine medically. My parting shot was that I hoped they were not using this on term pts...he replied not yet!!!! :jaw

[Chloe]

Cytotec is for something else, and was reccommended that it NOT be given during pregnancy, as it causes uterine contractions.

It is not safe. Urge every woman you know to REFUSE this drug if a doctor or midwife suggests it.

Here's a good article: http://www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/technologyinbirth.asp

[Née Née]

I posted an excellent article on this topic in the midwife/doula forum...but didnt get much of a response..I guess I should have tried a different forum...heres the article I posted.

http://cbc.ca/national/news/forcedlabour/

[crazy_eights]

Originally posted by WriterMama


I knew the risks of cytotec and my mw reiterated them to me. We made the decision together. Normally hospitals give dosages of 50 to 100 mcg. My mw gave me 8 mcg and inserted it vaginally. An hour later, my contrax began and established a normal pattern.


I wonder how well informed you really were. A dose of 8 mcg is *impossible*. I am an RN who is authorized by my hospital to cut and insert cytotec. The drug only comes in 100 mcg tablets. It must be cut into quarters to give a 25 mcg dose - if you cut it any smaller the tablet crumbles (it is a tiny tablet to begin with). Just getting it cut into quarters can be a challange. ACOG in their now infamous cytotec rebutal recommended a 25 mcg dose inserted vaginally (b/c theoretically it can be removed - it takes quite a while to disolve - while orally it can't) and nothing higher. Hospitals in my region won't insert any higher dosage, though I know some docs in other places will. A doc who inserts a higher doseage and has a bad outcome will have absolutely *nothing* to save his behind, b/c the ACOG recommendation is the only thing that can be cited as standard of practice!

After all this is said and done, as mentioned before, you really don't know what doseage you are getting since it isn't a standardized dose.

I'm glad it worked out for you. But personally, working with the stuff scares me to death - and we are very conservative with it.

[hawleyclan]

It is terrible to read about these outcomes. I will add this article to my Cytotec files. :(

I have had contact with a sweet mom online, whose unscarred uterus ruptured during a cytotec induced labor. She has been very outspoken about the risks, and others who have had negative experiences also tend to be quite forthright about it. The trouble lies in getting the damage to be recorded as a result of cytotec, the horrible outcomes are easy to write off as a result of some other cause- such as multiparity, age, etc. :(

Sad.

Personally, I hate to hear of midwives who use this product, it just doesn't really fit the call. There are too many other options, and if they don't produce the needed result, then it isn't time, or take the situation to a hospital. Homebirth is about normal birth, if you have to give cytotec it just isn't normal anymore.

It is pretty easy to be relaxed about a particular protocol, or drug, until you see it have a bad outcome, or survive a bad outcome personally. Why take the chance? :(

The Lord bless you,
Zoie
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Godsbabycatchers
Aspiring Midwives Study Group

[WriterMama]

*

[hotmamacita]

No one should take it. I had it with my first, it had been misrepresented to us, and it was violent. It also caused seizures in my daughter the first week of life.

[yequanamama]

Midwifery Today's most recent issue deals with this issue in a sense - it's about obstetrical intervention in general and points out that many midwives are getting in the habit of "managing" birth, just like doctors, instead of just "being there" as a midwife ideally should. It's an enlightening discussion. Go to www.midwiferytoday.com and scroll down to the purple box in the middle which reads "From the Editor: Out of the Pot, Into the Fire, by Jan Tritten." And, of course, the other articles are great too!

I have also heard very negative things about Cytotec. For goodness sake, the label warns that pregnant women should never take it because it can induce miscarriage! But it's true - once a drug is approved by the FDA for a specific use, a doctor can prescribe it for any use.

[crazy_eights]

Originally posted by hawleyclan
- Of under 5000 women given cytotec in studies, 25 had ruptures, 2 maternal deaths, 15 infant deaths, and 8-10 hysterectomies.

Interesting - this works out to .5% uterine rupture, the same rate as uninduced VBAC. Interesting b/c those same numbers are being used by OB's to argue that VBAC is dangerous and cytotec safe. However, many here would argue the exact opposite!

I do believe the rate of traumatic rupture (resulting in hysterectomies and infant death) is higher with cytotec. Also, maternal deaths are extremely rare with VBAC ruptures.