Obstetric cholestasis and induction

[j_white83]

Hi! Has anyone had cholestasis and a natural labour? I had an induction with my first child, she was born at around 38 weeks thanks to obstetric cholestasis. I was unbelieveably uncomfortable with the constant itching but I feel really robbed of a natural labour. I wasn't even told anything about the disease, I had to find out information myself, my doctor just booked me in for an induction the day after. Labour with my daughter was only about 3 hours long and I was in constant horrendous pain, and everything just felt so unnatural, drugged up and rushed! I am now pregnant with my second child, who is due in January, and I am worried I will have to be induced again thanks to the cholestasis. Is it really necessary to be induced? I have read cholestasis can cause stillborn but I just want to know if there is any chance of delivering naturally.

[BellyBelly]

You could always look into natural induction methods (acupuncture?) before the date they want you induced. If you have even a slightly open cervix, which is likely given you have birthed before, they can break your waters as a first attempt to start labour instead of drugs. The thing is, they will give you a time limit to go into labour before they will want to start the drip - you just have to make a decision on saying no if thats what you want, and you could say that if you show signs of infection you will accept antibiotics - often they only give you up to 2 hours but it often needs more than that...

I also wonder if Chinese medicine can try to help with this condition? Even many doctors will admit they don't know much about OC hence they are very jumpy with it.