How can you induce a woman to go into labor, and why would a doctor induce someone instead of just letting them give birth whenever it happens naturally?
In: Biology
I was induced at 41.5 weeks. It was either induction or having to do fetal stress test every day to make sure my baby was still healthy.
I was told I couldn’t eat or drink anything the night before in case they had to do a cesarean section. I got to the hospital at 7 am, was induced by 8 am, started vomiting stomach acid (empty stomach) at 8:30 am bc that’s a side effect of pitocin. At 9:15 the first contractions hit and I start screaming. I mean biting the pillow, wailing, crying, top of my lungs, raw-throated screaming. In most natural childbirths, contractions start relatively mildly – and become stronger and more painful as the process continues, but with a chemically induced birth, they start suddenly & at full strength. When I wasn’t wracked by spasms of pain, I was shivering uncontrollably. 4 blankets later I still can’t stop shivering. At 11 I finally agree to an epidural after trying all the other painkillers they offered. It takes 4 nurses to hold me still enough for the long, wide needle to be inserted right next to my spinal column to deliver a dose of anesthetic. If I move an inch, the needle could go into my spine, severing my spinal cord and leaving me paralyzed. I went limp almost instantly.
I spent the rest of the day in drowsy peace. At around 5 pm the nurse entered the room and stuck a very long tool up through my cervix and broke the amniotic sac surrounding my son and I began watching the second of a two-part episode of Batman: The Animated Series that I was completely engrossed in. With 7 minutes left in the show,p the doctor walks in & announces that it’s time & now I’m mad cause I was watching that & if this baby had waited this long, he could wait 7 minutes longer.
The nurse turns off the TV, the doctor slices through my body so the baby can slide out easier, but he just tore through what hadn’t been cut open. The doctor is yelling, the nurses are yelling, I’m yelling, then the baby’s yelling. The doctor goes to sew me back together & I raise up off the bed by a foot and a half.
Me: Ow!
Doctor: That did not hurt you. ( English wasn’t his first language)
Me: Yes it did, OW.
Doctor: Stop jumping, I am not hurting you.
Me: Stop doing that, it hurts!
Doctor: Is it pressure or is it pain? Pressure or pain?
Me: If I stick my thumbs in your eyeballs & squeeze your skull like a goddamn melon, it’ll be pressure that is painful.
He pinches my ass with the forceps they used to pull out the amniotic sac & when I screech, he says “Oh, the epidural must’ve worn off.” Then he tells me he’s going to put n an extra stitch called The Lover’s Knot which will help “tighten everything up a little quicker”. But that’s a nightmare ride for another day.
Please stop sharing anecdotes. They’re expressly against rule 3.
**If you are responding to the OP you need to craft an original explanation which will help them understand the thing they are asking, not share a story.**
The mods would prefer not to lock threads like this, and they would prefer not to ban people for breaking the rules after there were a bunch of warnings to not break the rules. So… help us not to do either by responding according to the rules!
(And if you’re extra helpful, report rule breaking comments / posts!)
Thanks, and enjoy reading the **explanations** which should be top level comments.
Latest Answers