Inducing Labor - Brooklyn,NY

Having an induction date is great. My last 2 children were induced but they were late and the 3rd was low on fluid. Induction is hard but so is regular labor. I would not have induced if they were not late with health concerns for the last baby. Keep in mind that induction does not always work and has a higher chance of finishing with a c-section. Congratulations!!!! A.

I agree with the Moms who say only be induced if there is a medical reason.

With my daughter (second child), my water had broken but I was not in labor. I had to be induced to prevent infection.

I'd actually been scheduled for induction with her because of some back issues and pushed the date back because I felt like such a weenie for not letting myself go into labor on its own.

Having spent almost my entire career in the medical field, I'm amazed that physicians are scheduling inductions out of convenience (theirs and the patients) instead of letting babies come when they're ready.

Good luck!

In my opinion, unless there is a medical reason to induce, for him to mention inducing is only to promote his agenda to schedule his next round of golf or whatever his fancy. You've had two healthy, naturally occuring labor and births, there is no reason to change paths. Also, inducing can lead to a cascade of other interventions, and brings with it a higher chance of c-section.

Yes, this being your 3rd, having advanced knowledge of when baby is to be born would be helpful, but do you really want the risk of a 6 week recovery from a c-section that could have been avoided? Let baby and God do their thing. Good luck!

I was induced with my son and I was worried because they always say induced births are harder and longer? Don't get me wrong its no matter what going to be hard but they did tell me it is more work. I wanted to go without epidural and started it that way but they weren't monitoring my contractions so I was having a consistant contraction and finally I got an epidural because I couldn't get relief. Everytime they came in my room they would up my pitossin and I was on such a high does that thats why i was contracting almost the whole time. He couldn't come out. Then I had to get a internal monitor and thats how they figured it out. Then they lowered it so much I stopped progressing. I started at 6:30 am and didn't have him until 11:37pm. I know thats not long but my doctor said my son was going to come a month early and then nothing, figured it wouldn't have taken that long since he's been ready for a month I know everyones different but personally I wanted to have him come on his own and I had preclampsia so had no choice but I think the whole natural experience is something wonderful coming on its own is a feeling I wish I have experienced. No matter what you'll never be prepared for what will happen and when. I'd talk to your doctor and ask all the pro's and con's about it and see what he/she says. But if I could've had my son come on its own I think that experience is what its all about. (Starts the excitement) Sorry if sounds wierd but I was told I couldn't have kids and got pregnant and wanted to experience it all and didn't get too. Sorry so long. Good luck.

Unless there is some medical emergency, induction for convenience is not a good idea. The baby will let you know when it's ready! Try to get organized with a support team to help you with your other children when you do go into labor. Good luck and congratulations on your newest bundle of JOY!!!

I would say NO! God created your body to know what to do. All the medical intervention now a days causes too many problems. You are more likely to have more painful contractions with pitocin (I speak from experience) and are at greater risk for emergency c-section, or problems with the heart rate of the baby during labor.

Our bodies know what to do naturally. Sometimes babies at 40 weeks still need an extra week or two to finish developing. 40 weeks is an average time only. It's not the rule.

Also, it seems Dr's are so happy to push expensive procedures (c-sections, inductions, epidurals, pain meds). Can we say MONEY MONEY MONEY? Here is another example of the out of control medical system we have. Before there were hospitals and Dr's delivering babies, women had them at home under the care of a midwife.

I've never been induced...but personally I would NOT recommend it. Not only have I heard it hurts worse...but the risk factors with it just are not worth it. Elective induction tends to have a higher risk of resulting in c-section, increased risk of fetal heart rate abnormalities, shoulder dystocia, use of forceps, etc.
My drs office has also offered me this so that I will know when the baby is coming...but I decided no way.

I would never recommend inducing just for the benefit of knowing when the baby would come. Sure, it's convenient b/c you could have arranged childcare; however, I wouldn't go that route. Have a plan & back-up plan of who will watch the kids when you need to go to the hospital, who will watch them if it's nighttime, etc. Have #'s & names handy on a list by the phone so it'll be easy to access. I went into labor naturally with my 1st, I was induced w/ my 2nd b/c I was 5 days late. I hated to have to get induced, but felt it was more dangerous to let the baby stay in even longer. Being induced causes faster, harder contractions. It's a harder labor in general, I think. I'm more of a naturalist & think the baby should come out when he's ready (not when it's convenient), unless there is a risk of the baby staying in too long. Good luck & congrats!

T.
www.mydiaperbabycakes.com

It is a scam. It just makes it easier for the doctors schedule. It is criminal that he suggested that. It is not natures way and you could have an unnecessary tear. Find a new doctor.

You doctor is irresponsible for suggesting an elective induction, just for the sake of convenience. I know he makes it seem like he's doing it for your convenience, but really, if you schedule ahead it truly is most beneficial to HIM.

Elective induction is advised against by pretty much every professional organization (from AGOC to March of Dimes). Induction should be reserved for cases in which it is deemed medically necessary. Otherwise you are exposing yourself to an increased risk of complications and interventions (especially ending up with a c section).

In the end it is your decision, but I would not do it.
Good luck.

wow there are a lot of people against it but I had my first and second induced. As long as you are full term and go til your due date I see no problems with it. My kids are fine, my first labor was long but most first's are and my second was a breeze. Go with what you want. Its a little more convenient to have a plan for your children so you can just go to the hospital. Its one of those things that works for one person and not the other. Just do what you feel like doing.

Your doctor is not suggesting this for the health of you or your baby - but rather his/her own ease in having a scheduled birth to attend to. I do not recommend this.

My doctor induced my 3rd because I had a history of 5-hour labors at 38 weeks, and I had moved farther from the hospital. I ended up having my daughter 25 minutes after she broke my water at 38 weeks. If you're dialated and effaced, I would recommend it. If you're not, or you have a history of long labors, I wouldn't think it was worth the pain that goes along with Pittosin. By the way, I had my 3 in 3-1/2 years too. Good luck! It's a lot of fun, but you'll be so so busy!

I was induced with number 1 and 3... I loved the way there were no surprises, everything was planned. I personally did not have a bad experience either time... number 1 was a long labor simply from it being my first pregnancy... number 3 was a breeze, I slept the whole time ;) Good luck and congrats!!

I was induced for my last child. I do not recommend it. It hurts more. I was in labor for 12 hour before i had her. U really cant get up and move as much as natural. I would def not recommend it.

I had 4 children. #1 started on her own was long but not difficult even though it was my first, #2 started on her own but was induced to speed it up to make it convenient for the dr and nurses, not me. #3 was a breeze almost didn't make it to the hospital in time. #4 was induced due to medical reasons and this one was the worse. I found with the inductions the contractions where much worse and didn't slowly build up where I could handle them. Nevertheless, I had all 4 without any epidural or much of anything else. My #1 had her first child last year which had to be induced due to medical reasons and the pain was unbearable. Even the epidural she had didn't help much. If you have a good support system, have your babysitters on stand by so they can help you out no matter when the baby decides to make his/her entrance and Good Luck!

Nope, induction increases chances of Cesarean. Let your body labor naturally, especially if you have done it this way twice already. Sounds like the dr is wanting to avoid the risk of a red-eye delivery to me!

There is no reason to induce unless medically necessary. The longer the baby is in the better. Please read this article on the importance of going to term and letting the baby come out when it's ready before you make your decision: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122999215427128537.html
As a birth doula, I have seen women who think they're just going to be induced end up with the whole list of interventions because one leads to another. It's near impossible to have just one.

I have one son and after going two weeks over my due date I was induced. It was a long labor. My son was perfectly happy where he was. I personally would NEVER do it again! I never had any braxton hicks, and I was not dilated when I went in. This may have contributed to my long labor.
I was throwing up during labor due to the pitocine. It just seemed like I never got a moment to catch my breath! Every time there was a small down moment the nurses would up the pitocine. I guess on a good note I knew the exact day I was going to go into labor.
I had two other friends who were induced and had no problems, and their labor went fast. One said shed do it again.
I would assume since it is your third child that being induced would go fast and easy, but you never know. All that matters is how important it is to you to know the exact day you will be in labor. Since you have two other kids it would make it easier to plan arragements for them while in the hospital.
Good Luck!
A.

I wouldn't do it, in order to be induced, they would probably use PITOCIN (i hope my spelling is correct). I had both of my children induced, I think when you are induced and your body isn't ready to go into labor yet, the pain is greater, I'm not an expert, just a Mom of two...Good Luck, see what some of the other Mom's say

I'm so glad to see so many moms recommending not to induce unless it is necessary. Not only will it lead to much more intense contractions, it causes more stress on the baby than is needed. Sure, in some cases it is the right thing to do and that is ok but if this is just for the convenience of the Dr or something like vacation plans it is really not a great idea. Why undergo potentially dangerous interventions without a good reason especially since you already had two successful natural births.

I induced with all 3 of my deliveries. I had no problems with any of them and it was definitely the right choice for us at the time. That being said, if you are able to plan for the care of your other children without inducing I don't see any reason to do it. As long as you are able to be prepared for it whenever it happens, I would wait. In our case we had to have childcare fly in from out of state for our other children so inducing worked best for us.

Good luck,
K.

Give me a break! You have done well naturally - the inducing drugs make the contractions so much harder - as we say in NY: forgedaboudit!

The downside to induction is that it can lead to all sorts of complications. Among other things, studies have shown that induction drastically increases your chances of having a cesarean. The recovery from a c-section, especially when you have two little ones at home to take care of, will likely be difficult. In my opinion, it is just not worth taking those risks just to ensure that you have the baby on a particular date.

I would leave that doctor and find a midwife to deliver in a hospital like I did. There is no reason to induce if you are having a heathy pregancy and no complications. hummm inducing to make easier for doc? inducing leads to complications. Let nature take its course. If you are on long island check out Gaia midwifery and Barbara Charles in huntington is a midwife. also Stoneybrook hospital.

Inducing greatly raises the likelyhood of fetal distress and increased your chance of ending with a C-section by over 70%! The media is finally covering that we have the #1 infant mortality rate of countries birthing over 400, 00 births per year and we are #2 globally, regardless. We also rank behind 40 other countries in regards to maternal deaths. These staggering numbers are, no doubt, due to unnecessary interventions and these "choices" offered to AMerican women.
You are awesome for having 2 drug free natural child births.
Don't even consider it!!!

Please feel free to message me if you would like verification or any more encouragement.

Congratulations and happy Birthing to you!!

dont just wate natural is the way to go i just had my second all natural and my first was not i was happyer this time around i loved every min. of it

I got induced last year per my request. Hubby only had 15 days home from Iraq, also have 7 year old daughter, and we are in Germany, so we needed to make sure he was home to take care of the older one and I got out of the hospital before he had to go back. I was 40 + 5 when I got induced and now have a healthy 11 month old little girl!
If it wasn't for the Iraq-Thing we would have waited for natural birth to start.

I haven't personally had an induction, but I have several friends and relatives who recently have. All of them suffered through long, painful labors with two out of the three ending up with c-sections. It obviously is your choice, but that is really something to think about. With my second baby, the doctor wanted to induce me when I came in for my appointment on his due date. I declined and went into labor on my own the next night. This is probably exactly what the doctor was trying to avoid! In my opinion, your body is usually the best judge of when it is time for a baby to be born.

I was induced and everything went fine but it was only because my amniotic fluid was low and the doctor wanted to get the baby out sooner rather than later. I heard induction should only be done when medically necessary. If everything is fine and it's just for convenience, I would say hold off on the induction and have the baby naturally. Natural is always best :)

This is just my opinion but I think it is ridiculous to induce for "convenience-sake". If you are inducing because you are 42 weeks and as we all know, the amniotic fluid levels can start to go down making it dangerous for baby, that's one thing. But to force your child to come before he or she is ready just to make it convenient is silly to me. What if the baby isn't ready? What if, because of inducing, something harmful has happened now...the cord is wrapped in a bad way...not trying to freak you out. That stuff can happen at any time but personally, if I induced just because I "wanted to" and something happened, I know I would forever wonder if it was my fault and I would not be okay with that. Some other women might not care or look at it that way. I know I would.

My opinion is to let Mother Nature take its course. Your baby knows when he/she is supposed to make an appearance.

I would not do it. Let nature do its job.

I've never been induced since both mine had to be c-sections but I never liked the idea of an induction. I'm kind of a hippie like that lol. I always preferred the idea of letting baby come when he/she is ready not what works for my schedule or the docs schedule.

I was at risk of early labor with my second so we had a day plan and a night plan in case I needed to get to the hospital. I had a list of people I could call on should I need someone to stay with or pick up my son from school during the day and a list of people that would come anytime during the night to stay with him till my mother-in-law could get there. I had all the info they might need ready like routine, meds, the house was kept stocked with easy snacks and foods (like frozen ravioli and jarred sauce, frozen veggies) to make it easy for someone to step in.

If you liked the first two being natural, don't do it just because the doc suggests it. Do you have a need to know the exact timing? As one friend said, once you introduce drugs, you open pandora's box. It seems to start, and draw out the natural process. I have heard this is especially true of epidurals. You may know when you are starting the process, but I doubt that you will know when the baby will actually come. I have been told that natural is much faster.

i actually had to induce my first two and am expecting a third as well. induction is great because you know exactly when the baby is coming. my parents came and stayed with my oldest when my 2nd was born and it was nice. you can have that nice steak dinner b4 u go in, all that fun stuff. i say go for it. there wer no problems with either delivery, i labored for a while, got epidurals with both and pushed both out in 10 minutes...easy peasy. i have a midwife this time and she is fine with it too, as long as its not bumped up time wise. although this time, since we live so much closer to my parents, im gonna try for the going into labor naturally. but dont be scared by induction, no way. my first baby was induced a week late and was 10 POUNDS!!!!!! he was a vaginal delivery and everything was smooth sailing. :) well, as smooth as childbirth can be anyway,lol.i say go for it. no one is gonna look out for your interests more than u. i can remember everyone squawking at me not to get epidurals and grow out my armpit hair and burn patchouli sticks with my first two too, lol. just do what feels right to you. if induction would make your life much easier witht his third addition, then do it. if you will fret too much about it, dont.

Like most of the other moms, ONLY if medically necessary!!!! I was not induced (although the doctor wanted to), BUT I did end up getting pitocin to help my labor along and it was not pleasant. It seemed as though my body had its own contractions and then there were the pitocin contractions and I never got a break AND I still ended up with a c-section after 31 hours of labor and 5 hours of pushing. The doctors like to be able to schedule deliveries whether by inducing or c-section, that way they don't get called in the middle of the night or on the weekend. I would wait until your baby is ready to come out.

Absolutely not!!!!!!

M.,
If you have had drug-free births with your first two, I'm sure you are aware of the consequences of induction of labor on both your baby and your body. With each introduction of an intervention (Pitocin or any other means of inducement, epidural, etc... ) the rate of C-section goes up. You might research induction of labor, check out some midwifery websites, look at their model of care, and evaluate what kind of experience you'd like to have, and what kind of birth you'd like your baby to have. He/she will only be born once, and his/her experience should be a good one.

If you can possibly avoid it, short of having a c-section, I would. Pitocin makes contractions much more intense and uncomfortable. I think having pitocin was a factor in my son aspirating meuconium and being an a respirator for 10 days and in the NICU 10 weeks. (he was full term, 9lbs and otherwise very healthy and I was only 4 days past my due date). I had it again in a smaller amount with my daughter and it didn't seem to harm her (it was pit or a c-section so we tried it first). It is much harder to have an unmedicated birth with pitocin because of the intensity of the contractions (I ended up with epidurals followed by c-sections both times--1 was failure to progress and the other was fetal distress b/c the baby was wrapped in the cord).

Hi M.,
No, I certainly wouldn't. Plenty of women (like me) figure out what to do with the other kids, make a plan ahead of time and have someone (or two) on 24 hour call.
What your doctor didn't tell you is that inducing your labor can increase the risk of fetal distress, uterine rupture and cesarean, as well as postpartum hemorrhage for mom and jaundice for baby. Your doc also likely didn't mention that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (the foremost authority on women's health in the U.S.) and the World Health organization both advise against inducing without medical indication that it would provide some health benefit to mom or baby.
What induction is, is convenient for your doctor, allows her/him to plan "daylight deliveries"
Good luck

I would say that unless the procedure is medically necessary don't do it. I have not been induced but have some horror stories from a few very close friends (basically ended in c-section). You opted for natural birth with your first two for a reason. I went natural with my two also and would not have been induced even if someone had paid me.
Have you seen "the business of being born"? Before you make your decision please watch it. It is very onesided (for natural) but very informative. There is a higher risk of complications and c-section if you are induced.
I think it would be much safer for you and your baby if you wait for baby to be ready to make his/her entrance into the world.

I would never induce labor. Your body knows (usually) when the right time to have this baby is. My sister In-law decided to induce because they live in the midwest and her due date was a few days away. There was a blizzard coming and they live a 1/2-1 hr away from the hospital. She was induced, labored for 25hrs with little to no progress and had to get a C-section. The stats for women who have to have C-sections because of failed inductions are very high. Please let your body do what it was intended to do in the time it wants. Congrats on your Baby!!!

Do not induce. My first was induced and it was a nightmare. My second on his own and it was so much easier and faster. Let nature takes its course. There is nothing about pregnancy that is predictable except that it is temporary :) Good luck!

Dear M.-

Have you heard of the "cascade of interventions"??

Once you start an induction, it can lead to pitocin (an artificial hormone) which can impact the strength of your labor pains resulting in requesting an epidural which could impact the baby and its heart rate which then makes the doctors nervous which in turn could lead to a c-section. Of course, this is a worse case scenario, but it is also the most typical one.

If an induction is not medically necessary and you have experienced the beauty of natural child birth and understand your own body enough to know that labor will come naturally when ready, then why would you want to mar your third birth experience?

Inductions, unless there is a medical reason, are only done for convenience and "comfort" via the ending of pregnancy, but IMO, the opportunities for cascading and loosing control of your birthing experience are way too dangerous to risk.

I would be questioning why the doctor would even have made such a statement. What is their rush?

I truly hope that you steer away from such a dangerous suggestion and seriously consider a new doctor. Sorry if I sound overly passionate about this, but women were meant to be pregnant and women were meant to give birth and not every pregnancy is a "medical condition" to be "treated. It frustrates me to see a doctor create a problem where there is none.

Good luck with your decision.

Have faith Mama! You are strong!
~C.

I would highly recommend it! My first was induced at 39 1/2 weeks because my blood pressure went up...never happened before. It was somewhat a long labor. They induced me at noon and I had him at 1 am. Second and third were induced because my sister was coming in town to care for the others. Second, I went in at 7am and delivered at 1pm. The only reason it took that long is because my doc had a surgery and didn't break my water until 10:30. It goes much faster with second, third,etc. pregnancies...I had no problems. Talk to your doc about it and make sure you'll feel comfortable with it, but I think it's great.