induction experience, health professionals should do more to avoid it. (Birth Induction)

Member Name: mystic_flayme

Product:	Birth Induction
Date:	10/02/06 (1004 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: alliviates the SMALL risk of an unborn postdue baby dying in the womb.

Disadvantages: in the mojority of cases makes labour very difficult as disscussed below.

i have applied to become a student midwive for sept 2006, and in doing so have researched many many aspects surrounding pregnancy and childbirth.

my personal experience of being induced is that it made my labour very long, very painful and ended in a assisted ventouse delivery, epsiotomy and fetal distress. My labour was a total of 37 hours long! and the contractions were extremely painful and relentless, with no natural pause between them at all. it made me exhausted, feel out of control and i feel resulted in intervention being needed to deliver my baby.

through my research i can support the fact that what i experienced is the overwhelming normal for induced labour. it increases the pain of contractions, the length, intensity and frequency. it often leads to a very long labour. and it increases the risk of needing medical intervention. 78% of women who experienced an induction would prefer not to do so again (mayes midwifery textbook, page 618)

in contrast to my second birth which was natural. i can safely say thats the way to go! much shorter, breaks between contractions and no interventions.

i think health professionals should do more to encourage natural labour to occur before resorting to induction. including all the old wives tales of walking, curries, sex ect. but also medical procedures such as the sweeping of the membranes. i also think parents should be informed more throughly of the problems associated with induction and given the option to wait it out for longer with close observation.

there are obviously exceptions to the rule, for some it may benefit the health of the baby as their are risks of a baby dying if left for too long postdue. but i think this risk is often a scare tactic, the percentages of this happening are extremely small. with careful monitoring to check on baby's health i believe that many inductions could be avoided and natural labour would occur.

Summary: women should be more informed of induction complications and maybe encouraged to wait.