I already mentioned that I have an induction scheduled for March 26. As the time gets closer, I haven’t managed to completely resolve my conflicting feelings.
Originally, Dr. L suggested induction at 39 weeks. At the time, it seemed like one of the major considerations was that she would be on vacation at 40 weeks and wanted to make sure she was around so I wouldn’t have to be delivered by a stranger. This wasn’t a sufficient enough reason for Jaeger and I to feel comfortable with an induction. We talked about it further at our next appointment and the two main medical reasons Doctors L & B gave were: 1) I’ve been dilated 4+ cm since January 31 and even though my water hasn’t broken, they are concerned about infection and 2) I’m GBS positive and they are concerned that since I’m already so dilated they might not have time to give me the full antibiotic course before Calvin comes. 3) After 41 weeks there is a high risk of fetal demise.
While I love the advances western medicine has given us, I also usually prefer to do as much preventive care as possible to avoid needing medical interventions. Thus, a part of me wants to wait for labor to start “naturally.” There are risks to inducing labor. In my case, they probably aren’t as significant because we are past the 39 week mark and I have a “favorable” cervix.
Being a librarian, I tried to find research on inductions for situations similar to mine. I couldn’t find anything. Of course, the research might exist somewhere but if it does, I’m using the incorrect terms to find it. Because I can’t find any research for or specifically against induction in my situation, I felt a compromise between my preferences and my doctors’ preferences was reasonable to take into account anecdotal evidence they have gathered over the years. After talking with the doctors, we compromised by pushing the induction to 40 weeks (assuming normal blood test result which I did have).
Jaeger and I have been trying some gentle “natural” methods of inducing labor. For instance, I’ve been making sure to exercise at least an hour each day and then often will go on additional walks. You might wonder why I’m trying even natural induction options if I’m dubious about inductions. Most natural labor inductions have very little research supporting their effectiveness (nipple stimulation is one we haven’t explicitly tried due concerns about its safety). In addition, I’m not going to try any of the “herbal” remedies. I feel much less comfortable with herbal remedies than I do using western medicine for a variety of reason (mainly because I feel in many cases, herbs are just very poorly regulated/researched versions of standard drugs). As such, I don’t think it’s likely any of the natural induction methods I’m willing to try will start labor unless my body is already ready to go into labor.
Ironically, even though I’d like to go into spontaneous labor, for several reasons I really hope it doesn’t happen at night. First, even when I went into preterm labor, I never had painful contractions. As a result, I think it’s very possible I could start having regular contractions while sleeping and not wake up until an hour or two after it starts. Considering that one doctor in Denver thinks I could have a 2 hr labor, this doesn’t seem ideal. (Note, I am fully expecting contractions to hurt at some point, it just obviously hasn’t so far). Second, if I go to the hospital in the middle of the night, I’ll be even less coherent than I would under normal labor circumstances and as such, may not be able to make my wishes fully understood.
Now that I’ve got most of that out of my system, I think it’s time I go grocery shopping to stock up on essentials we’ll need for the next several weeks.
As an aside, I was induced and I turned out mostly normal 
Wow. You have researched this process of pregnancy SO MUCH…have you considered quitting your job and starting your own business of pregnancy consulting?
You could be the I-know-everything-except-I’m-not-a-doctor-please-pay-me person.:-)
That would be amusing :) When I was a reference librarian it had a research aspects to it. However, I’ve always thought it would be fun to figure out some way to become a dedicated researcher that covers a variety of areas. Similar to a reference librarian without all the “my email won’t work” and “where is the bathroom” questions.
My labor was quick at six hours, but by the time I got to five, I was feeling the contractions. Good luck and we’ll be watching for news. My two cents of advice: get all the sleep you can even if it’s in 20-minute increments. I was dead tired the first three weeks.
Us pregnant people want to know all we can, and those of us who feel we are intelligent like to second guess standard medical procedures. Therefore we research and learn as much as possible.
I wouldn’t want to be induced either, though I know it’s not the end of the world. My friends who have been induced either started out wanting an epidural, ended up wanting drugs before it was over, or one went to an emergency c-section under general anesthesia (she was completely blind about labor-delivery and was told later she could have prevented the c-section if she had been better prepared and less freaked out). I prefer not to use the meds unless I have to, though I just found out I’m GPS positive as well, which means I’ll at least have to have the antibiotics, which I’m not excited about. I wonder if I could do treatment before labor begins so I don’t have to have the IV hooked up….
Good luck – I hope everything goes well tomorrow! I’ll look forward to stories and pictures.
I did ask if I could perhaps get an oral dose of the antibiotics when we thought I was going to go into labor instead. The doctor said that wouldn’t work. However, if I recall correctly from my experience at PSL, you need antibiotics every 4 hrs but it doesn’t take the entire 4 hrs to get the dose. Up till today, I was working under the assumption that they’d give me a hep lock like I had before so it’d be relatively easy to hook and unhook me from the actual IV once I had received my dose for that time period. However, I quick search reveals that some hospitals might not do it that way. I guess that’s one more thing I need to remember to talk to them about tomorrow morning …