If you aren't already aware, seeing as this is my first post on this blog, I am about 7 3/4 months pregnant. This means birthing classes, doula meetings with our doula, prenatal yoga, researching a million and a half things, and of course, writing the birth plan. Something I hadn't anticipated, or even given any real concern, was induction. What if I needed to be induced?
I had taken into account the most minute details I could imagine, read about, and decide on. Down to whether or not our baby would get the Vitamin K shot, when her cord would be cut, exactly (and by medical name) what medications I would refuse, who would catch her, whether or not she'd have a pacifier in the first hours of life, what her diapers would be made of (fabric or plastic) and several other teensy tiny details I felt oh-so proud to have noticed, read up on, and decided on. However, I had in no way considered what I'd do, how I'd feel, or how I'd cope with an induction. When my friend, had the last of her three beautiful boys, I immediately pounced on the opportunity to hear her birth story and question her about every thing I could think of. She told me she had been induced, and I was floored. This was news to me. People with healthy, happy, and 'natural' pregnancies got induced?
I read everything I could on induction. When does it happen? Why? To whom? Where? All of the basics, of course. I realized something terrible on my quest for information. I was VERY upset to consider this could happen to me. That my due date could come....and go....and I'd still be saddled with Little Foot in my belly. That out of all those little box tops we saved, from different foods that we like with expiration dates all in August, (up to the 21st) not a one could be her birthday. Most of all, that I would be given drugs. Lots of them. I'd be given a cocktail of painful and intense drugs through a pole in my arm, to begin what I couldn't myself, like other mothers. That my body would no longer be in charge or calling the shots. That my chances for C-Section would go up dramatically. And heart breakingly, I could forgo an epidural (not likely since most induction are a little different as far as intensity and pain than a natural birth), but no matter how much pain I endure, and whether or not they put a needle in my spine, I could no longer say or feel that I'd had a natural birth.
[ For some people, an epidural is exactly what they want. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT. Birth is a very personal thing. I would like to feel it all and try to be 'empowered' by it and it just means a lot to me. I have however accepted that I do not want to be miserable when my daughter is born, and if I need an epidural to focus on getting her here, or to calm me, then so be it. I want to be happy, focused, and calm when labouring, and meeting her. My goal is to do that through relaxation techniques, massage, meditation and other non-medicinal methods. If I for whatever reason cannot achieve this, then an epidural is the best thing. I am aware that natural child birth is VERY painful, uncomfortable and tough, but that doesn't mean miserable. I still want to be happy, focused and somewhat calm. If I'm bawling and screaming and can't even think about the task at hand, much less work towards it, then there is no empowerment in that. ]
In the end, my doula comforted me with some papers showing that I still had options and different positions we could try, in the event of an induction, and even an epidural. I was grateful she had been there because I honest to goodness thought an induction meant an epidural, (Or c-section!!) and that meant no options. We've decided that if I go to 41 weeks, with no signs of dilation or effacement, we'll accept that we had waited for our Little Foot to decide to come out, and she just hadn't, and we would have to help her along. And that 'helping her along' didn't have to mean epi, and an epi didn't mean laying on my back.
We're all pretty satisfied with our decision and honestly, if you're facing the same problem, just know that nothing is definitive, strive for what you wanted, and if it's not possible, just know that without medical advancements and your decisions, you/your baby might not have made it 'naturally'. You are still a woman, a mother, and a strong person, no matter how you birth.
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