Inductions and first time mums...

Heard some pretty sobering stats last night... spoke to a midwife at a meeting I went to, who works at the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne. She said that of the first time mums who come in for inductions, somewhere between 50-75% end up with epidurals. She said that often they just don't understand why these women have been told they need inductions as the pregnancy has been healthy and normal. Thats a pretty worrying figure... but sadly I guess it makes sense - first labours can be tough, mum hasn't been through it before and probably hasn't had much support or good education, the pain is a shock, so an induction on top of that -everything easily goes pear shaped... if the amount of inductions can be reduced I think it will be a big drop in caesareans too. Pet topic of mine lol.

Hi Kelly, that is pretty scary stuff. Why is it that people who have elective c/s tend to have baby around 38 weeks? just curious. I know there are a lot of article on belly belly which are good preperation for labour,but can you recommend anything i can do/read to help prepare - i DO NOT WANT AN EPIDURAL unless there is a medical/emergency reason. It's all so confusing, no wonder those stats exist, if you don't know how do you stop it!!

Rachel, education is the best I reckon in preparation. Do some proper antenatal classes (not the ones run in hospitals) or something like hypnobirthing classes which can help you prepare mentally as well as physically for labour. I think this time around I feel so much better having read heaps of books and having birth support (external birth support such as doula or birth attendants) and hypnobirthing. HTH!!!

I agree with Christy... definatley get some proper antenatal classes, and do as much research as possible...

I was exactly the same as you, I did not want any drugs at all... I thought that DH and I were as preared as we could be at that time. I deep down didn't want to be induced, but then the thought of not being pg anymore, and meeting our beautiful baby I agreed to be induced. Things definatley went pear shaped frm there... I ended up with 2 epidurals and 2 top ups and it still didn't work properly, I used the gas and has a shot of morphine...

So RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH, and definately look into hypnobirthing, I left my run too late and couldn't get in... oh and if you can, avoid induction!

Kelly - Scary, but true...!

i think i've hijacked this thread! sorry kelly. I'm quite happy to have drugs just not via epidural. I had a brief look at hypnobirthing but worry it won't work for me as i'm not a big believer in hypnosis. Thanks for your advice,.

Hi,

WOW that is amazing statistics.

I have to say from my experience so very true too.

I had an induction with my first baby due to PE so i couldnt avoid it, it had to be done. But i remember the absolutel shock to my body of having my waters broken and the sudden immense pain i felt. It was so bad it made me vomit. It was like going from 2 to 10 on a pain scale in less than 5 minutes. So of course i desperately wanted an epidural. Because of the speed of my labour (3cm to giving birth in 3 hrs) my epidural didnt work proparly for me but i remember the pain being phenomenal. I felt like the whole thing was out of control.

I then had 2 spontaneous labours with epidurals. Because of the pain from my first labour i didnt think i could go drug free.

My 4th child was an emergency induction at 35 wks due to fetal distress. Amazingly i got through this whole birth with no drugs at all. I felt very proud of myself that i could do it, especially on an induction when my first induction was so painful.

Maybe there should be a policy that you only have an induction with your first baby unless it is 100% neccessary. Cos i know from my experience, it certainly carved the choices i made with my following labours and i was going to have another epidural with my 4th, it just didnt get there in time. I never planned to have her with no drugs. And i have to say it wasnt overly painful, just intense.

I think an important thing to remember to is that Mother have a choice!. If there is no medical reason for them to have a induction then why have it.

With DD i was told that i was going to be induced at 40wks because i had reoccuring UTI. But the last month i was all clear so i was adamant i wasnt going to be induced. And i wasnt, i kept declining and delivery a week late. Claire was fine.
With DS same thing, because i have antibodies in my blood they wanted to induce me at 38 weeks. But again due to my blood levels never changeing through out my pg i declined again. I was constantly pressure to go the induction but i couldnt see the problem with me going full term. DS was a week early and was fine. DS was due Christmas Day so i suspect they wanted me done and out before then.

Stand up for your rights as a mum. You are not a patient but a visitor to the hospital. And enjoy the birth.

ETA. Both my labours were short and drug free and im keen to go again.

I think the figures are a tad alarming but on the other hand I was a first time mum who was induced due to toxemia and I had a short, drug free and very easy labour. Obviously Im a minority.

With my first I wasn't induced as such but I did have to go on to the syntocin drip to get things moving.
But Being first time round, I would have just done as I was told. My OB told me a week before my due date that he wanted to induce me if I didn't go into labour on my own on my due date. I did question him as too why because he had only told me at the visit before that babys should come on there own & how a baby born on its own at 37 weeks would do better then the baby born at 40 that was induced. But his reasoning was that he felt that DS#1 was too small to leave to his own accord & that after 40 weeks the chance of stilbirth for low weight baby's increases. So of course I would just do as I was told after being told that.
I did go home & reaserch everything about inductions etc & refused any pain management till I was in transition, then I gave into being pressured & tried the gas as a comprimise to the pethedine that the midwife was tyring to force me to have. In the end I had a 7lb 8oz baby. So he was not small at all! Not huge but not tiny to warrent needing to be induced. But being first time & being told what I was by my OB, who was I to question him further?

Rachel, they do the c/s @ 38 weeks as this prevents the woman going into labour, however there is lots of evidence that some labour is better than none, where there isn't a life theatening situation of course. Booking a woman in however, is more convenient and everyone can work around the date, rather than the baby. There is an article on epidurals on the main site, https://www.bellybelly.com.au/birth and it's a difficult choice for pain relief. One of the leading experts in drugs & breastfeeding has recently urged all mums not to have pethidine in labour as it's one of the two main drugs contraindicated for breastfeeding. Babies are often born floppy or flat from these drugs, have breasfeeding issues as a result of having pethidine in their system which doesn't take a few hours like adults to pass through but a few days. Scary stuff. Even gas has been linked with breastfeeding problems so really, it's in both mums & baby's best interest to get through as best she can without pain relief - not always possible - but make choices based on what is the best option to you. I would never have pethidine personally but I intend on putting myself in a situation next time where medicated pain relief is not an option - at home in water. I've heard many women say they would have asked for pain relief should they have been in hospital! :) So an added benefit for me, I know I can get through and the temptation wont be there.