Labor Induction - Dinner and a Date
One of my friends is past her due date…wondering when her baby will come…so I thought I’d revive this blog post I wrote about 2.5 years ago.
So often when I talk to women in the last weeks of pregnancy, what I hear is a recollection of all the “natural” methods they have tried to induce labor. And frankly, I find this disturbing.
I have to admit, the most after my due date that I’ve gone with any of my 5 pregnancies was 2 days…and I was in denial that I was in labor when it started because “I’m not having this baby for another week–I have things to do!” And each pregnancy there after I birthed at 39 weeks on the dot (until my 5th, which I birthed at 38 weeks 6 days), so with the exception of the 4th I was still repeating the same mantra as labor started “I’m not having this baby for another week–I have things to do!” By the 4th I had accepted my reality, and predicted the birth date 2-3 months in advance.
So anyway, bottom line…I’ve not been one to eagerly pursue induction (though I was induced with my second–water broke but no labor). But I’ve also not gone through the waiting many women experience when they go past their “best before date.” Oh, wait, that’s an “ESTIMATED due date!” I can’t really say if I wouldn’t be in the “what can I do to get this baby out?” camp if I did go much past my due date. But the thing I find most disturbing is the women who are starting the natural induction techniques as early as 37 weeks.
Just because it is “natural” does not mean that it is “risk free,” which I think is a distinction that many people fail to make. Poison Ivy, Oak, and Sumac are all natural. So is a bite from a Viper. Blue and Black cohashes have been linked to heart problems in the infant. Castor oil can cause the baby to pass meconium in utero. (Note: It has been pointed out to me that many midwives dispute this notion linking castor oil to meconium. I don’t know of any research one way or the other…so for now I’ll drop that from my list of “known” side effects and just stick with the annoyance of running to the bathroom over and over and over…) Nipple stimulation and walking really don’t seem to work to induce labor so moms may needlessly tire/discourage themselves trying these methods (but they can be very effective for augmenting labor). Most importantly, if the natural method does trigger labor a few days sooner than it would have started on its own, who is to say that the baby is quite ready yet? Or the mom’s body? My own experience with having my membranes stripped in my first pregnancy (without my consent) was that I had a very long labor–I think in part because my body was not quite ready to labor yet. There were other factors too, but I think that one was high on the list.
So when moms ask my opinion on labor induction, my first advice is that they try to hang in there…the average nulipara (woman who hasn’t given birth before) will be pregnant for 41 weeks 1 day, while the average multipara goes to 40 weeks 3 days. So for many women, they are stressing about being “late” when they haven’t even reached the average gestation for their situation. Further, for there to be averages, some moms have to go even longer than that.
Beyond that, I encourage moms–really and truly–to QUIT trying to start labor. Try to take their minds off the question of “will I EVER have this baby???” I know..hard to do. With my 4th pregnancy I experienced for the first time being tired of being pregnant…and I was only 6 months along–LOL!
But seriously, adrenaline, created from stress, can inhibit labor. So I think that trying to relax and just giving the whole “I’ve got to get labor going!” thing a break may be very helpful.
I encourage moms to take a day weekend for some pampering. If she has older kids, she might want to get them involved in this, though she should use her own judgement on whether they would relax her, or keep her “on the ready.” Anyway…I encourage mom to take a nice long soak in a tub complete with dim lighting, scented candles, and some soft music. When she gets out, perhaps the kids can have heated towels waiting, and maybe they could have been preparing the master bedroom to be a haven while mom was bathing–putting fresh sheets on the bed, setting up a light snack and some candles, music, and dim lighting. Mom should enjoy the snack. Let the kids (if they can do it well) give a foot massage. Let partner give a full body massage (kick the kiddos out of the room for this of course–LOL!). If the massage leads to something…hey, go for it. But if it doesn’t–mom shouldn’t stress herself and think “I need to have sex, it might kick start labor.”
Mom should then take a nap. A nice, long, deliciously decadant one. One of those ones that mom wakes up feeling kind of like a cat who was basking in sunlight, and wonders with thankful amazement at how the kids didn’t wake her up (because they were sent outside or to friends to play, or DH kept them busy reading books).
When she wakes up, her kind hubby will have dinner ready for her (yes, he will, mom should let him know that is his job. ;-), or will have made arrangements to take mom to a restaraunt that makes her feel relaxed & pampered. This is not the time for a buffet or fast food (unless you want to have DH bring Boston Market food home to eat by candle-light–that is yummy!). Mom should let someone else serve her.
Mom can tuck the kids into bed to get those nice maternal hormones going. 
Then more massaging if she is in the mood–at the very least, a nice cup of chamomile tea, and off to sleep early.
If calming down the adrenaline in her system allows labor to begin–GREAT! She is well rested for the task. And if it doesn’t–GREAT! When is she going to get a chance to rest like that after the new baby comes? And taking the break will allow her to be more energized to pick back up on trying some way to give labor a kick start.
And that’s it. It’s worked for several of my clients.
Tags: due date, Induction, labor, marriage
As someone who had a 30-weeker I can’t really relate to “when will the baby ever come.” I can say that the NICU is not a fun place to be and I think I would take the few extra weeks to “get stuff done” and take a long nap to sitting in the NICU watching someone else take care of your baby anyday.
I too hate seeing women scrambling around desperately trying to evict the baby as soon as the 37-38 week point sets in. And 99% of the time all their efforts are fruitless, because as you and I both know, babies don’t come till they’re ready no matter how much Thai food you eat, or how much sex you have.
Today I saw the Facebook status of a friend and in the comments someone had said, “Girl aren’t you like two days overdue?! Get that doctor to break your water for you and the baby will come right away!” :headdesk:
Debbie–I’m sure that having a 30 weeker is very tough!
Jill–I bang my head right with you!
Yes, I don’t understand this either. I happily went to 40 weeks and 3 days and could have kept going if they hadn’t found I had very little amniotic fluid at that point. At church the day after my due date, I was asked “when are you due?” - and beamed while responding “yesterday”. Now, I did have very few symptoms, was pretty comfortable all the way to the end (average size baby and a long torso helped), but I also made it a priority to take it easy when I was tired, and not push myself to do too much. I believe that helped my state of mind (and body) more than anything else!
Lisa,
I’m happy you were able to go to your “due date.” I’m assuming you were induced when the low fluid was discovered, and had a good birth?
Interestingly, “low fluid” has somewhat become a fashionable reason to induce labor in recent years, despite a lack of evidence supporting it as a need to induce labor. Many care providers will induce labor for anything below 10.
But, research out of Johns Hopkins University found that even fluid levels below 5, in the absense of other risk factors, did not indicate any problem with the baby. One of the big reasons for this is because measuring the fluid is very difficult to do, and measurements performed one right after the other often are very different. Measuring the fluid around the baby is kind of like trying to measure the volume in a glass cup by looking down on it–from that angle, you just don’t know how *deep* the water is.
I had an induction-turned-c-section with my first at 37.5 weeks, and was SO happy, with my second (a home birth) to go for 42w1d. Although I DID reluctantly do a castor oil induction so my midwife wouldn’t make me go to the hospital, I don’t recommend it, and I certainly wouldn’t advocate trying it before 42w! I try really hard to encourage the pregnant mamas I know to really educate themselves about inductions and to just enjoy that last few (albeit LO-O-ONG) weeks of pregnancy.