An Induction Story…..How the Start of Birth can Affect You Forever

Birth. It’s something you think about for months, maybe even years, before it happens.

And then you (presumably) get pregnant, keep in the loop with your doctor, go to your checkups….

and as your pregnancy progresses, the doctor may or may not recommend getting an induction.

Before you make a final decision, let me tell you a story.

I had a client a couple of months ago who had come to me about three weeks before her induction date. She was seeking out doula services as well as a birth photographer/videographer. I wish I had had time to work with her sooner, so that we could do more preparation before her birth, but I was so glad to be able to sit with her at Starbucks and hear her story and understand what exactly she was having fears about.

This particular client was having her 2nd baby. Baby was unexpected, but they were excited, and nervous, all wrapped into one. She was actually a doctor, herself, so I was a little surprised when she decided she wanted a doula. But that being said, let me get to her story.

I am going to tell this story as I was hearing it through my doula ears.

During her first pregnancy, she found out she had gestational diabetes. Her OB recommended getting induced. According to her doctor, she was not supposed to go past 40 weeks. So she, being nervous and wanting to keep everyone safe, agreed.

When induction time came around, which was around 38 weeks, she arrived on the prescribed date, and they began pitocin. However, unfortunately, her body hadn’t started preparing itself for labor at all. She essentially was not quite ready.

You would think the pitocin would do the job, right?

Unfortunately, if your body is not ready for labor, if you start pitocin, it could take days for labor to start. And because pitocin induces abnormally painful contractions, you may be in intensive pain for several hours. This will often lead to the need for an epidural, which means you will be laying in a bed with numb legs. If your body is numb, you will not be able to move yourself around and reposition as needed to help get baby moving in a good direction, thus delaying labor.

After about 30 hours went by, this poor client was completely exhausted. Her body had been laboring on and off, but baby wasn’t in a great position. She was miserable. When she had finally reached full dilation, baby hadn’t descended into the right position, but the staff told her to start pushing. She purple pushed for almost two hours, and while baby did eventually come out, she was left with intensive pelvic damage.

She was left needing to go to intensive therapies and needed a walker to walk for quite a while. It took her almost two years before her pelvis had completely healed, and now she was pregnant again, and terrified of the past repeating itself.

This is why she wanted a doula for her 2nd birth.

When we were chatting, I could hear where things went wrong in her first labor.

So we came up with a game plan.

We discussed timing, we discussed stretches and positioning, we discussed working through fears.

Ultimately, this time, thankfully, she ended up starting her induction after her body had already been showing signs that it was preparing itself for labor. And yes, she did have gestational diabetes and was also considered geriatric, as she was over 35.

A beautiful baby girl was born within 12 hours of starting pitocin. Yes, she did get an epidural this time, but the staff helped put her into a side-laying release position, which got baby into the right spot, and she went from 4 cm to 10 cm within two hours.

Baby was born beautifully.

Mom was able to walk easily almost right away.

No intensive pelvic damage, and mom was able to mentally and emotionally heal from the trauma of her first birth.

I can’t tell you how beautiful this experience was to witness!! And I can’t stress how important it is to really prepare for labor, and if you decide to get an induction, you do not have to go with the schedule your doctor wants you on (unless of course it is evident that you or baby will be in imminent danger if action is not taken). Yes, in this situation, she hadn’t gone past 40 weeks, but her body was more ready to be induced than it was the first time. I really think that was her saving grace.

The moral of the story is this. Giving your body a chance to do what it was designed to do can help avoid the mental, physical, and emotional trauma that can happen from rushing things. And yes, sometimes you or baby’s health warrants a speedy birth, but do your research ahead of time and weight out the pros and cons. (And yes, her placenta was beautiful. Very little calcification.)