While I was in nursery yesterday evening, Wendy called me on my cell phone… something she doesn’t generally do unless it’s about something important. I answered and she said, “Cindy’s in labor, they induced her and it’s not going well.”
Our friend Cindy was due at the end of last week. The practice she attends – the same one I attend – believes in inducing mothers at 41 weeks. If you question this practice, they show you charts showing how infant mortality increases starting at 42 weeks gestation, increasing even more at 43 weeks. (The studies showing this did not take into account whether or not a patient was closely monitored after 41 weeks.) The problem is, I now see that they don’t even necessarily wait until you’re a full 41 weeks along. It’s all about convenience. Doctors make me so mad.
Cindy was told she’d be induced this week and she assumed, rightly so, that it would be at the end of the week since that would make her 41 weeks along. Well, no sirree… she had to be fit in on a day where there was an opening. So they took her in Monday evening to put the prep gel on her. MONDAY EVENING!!! Hello??? She was only a half week past her due date, if that! Idiots. So of course her body wasn’t ready. They prepped her that night, then did it again Tuesday when she hadn’t dilated. Then they sent her home. She went back, they sent her home again. She went back again Wednesday morning and had to sit in triage for five hours because they didn’t have a room for her. Note: the woman has been having contractions THE WHOLE TIME! I’m ready to go smack the doctors around a bit. By the time they finally got her a room and gave the poor woman an epidural, she was having extremely painful contractions and experiencing pain between them as well, and she still was barely dilated.
Cindy told us all before that she’s discovered that anesthesia doesn’t work very well on her. For some reason, she just isn’t as sensitive to it as most people. This being the case, the epidural didn’t afford her as much relief as it might afford some, and she was unable to rest fully. When I spoke to her husband last night, she had been in labor for two days and hadn’t been able to rest well for most of that time. They were both exhausted, and she was still only at 5 centimeters dilation after almost two days of induced labor.
Now, if you’re going to try for an induction when a woman’s body isn’t ready at all – she hadn’t dilated at all before they started the procedure – you’re either going to have a failed induction that ends with the doctors saying, “Sorry for all the pain! Go home and we’ll see you in a few days!” or you’ll end up with a C-section. Cindy’s doctors determined which way this would end when they broke her water yesterday afternoon.
They let Cindy get all the way to 6 centimeters dilation, cranking up the pitocin at regular intervals to try to move things along, then they gave her a C-section. That was at 5:48 this morning after they had caused her to be in labor for more than two days’ time. The best part is, even then they didn’t give her enough anesthesia and she was in pain for the whole C-section procedure.
Now, I know that if I went with this practice for my next child (whenever that happens), I would probably be induced. I’ve gone more than 43 weeks with both of my girls. The doctors very kindly told me that they’d let me go to 42 weeks because of my history, but that’s not very comforting when I see what happened to Cindy. I’m sure my situation would be different since my body would probably be a bit more ready than hers – this was her first child, too – but it’s still scary. I hadn’t decided before whether I would do another home birth or a hospital birth for my next child, but I think this has made up my mind. Home births cost more financially since insurance won’t cover them, but I think I’ll save bundles on the emotional wear and tear.