Induction Information - Should You Get Induced? Part 1

The Real Risks of Pitocin

This article has been going around the internet like wildfire! I've read a lot about pitocin, but I never realized everything that was involved with its routine use, or the real risks. All expectant parents need this information.

"Pitocin – a very useful drug that improved obstetrics and gave us options to help women in ways we weren’t able to before!

"Pitocin – a very seductive drug that changed obstetrics, increasing risks to mothers and babies in ways that are often not even taken into consideration.

"Both of these statements are true – how can that be? I will do my best to explain this complex issue in a simple and straight forward way. Be warned…much of what you are about to read will probably be new to you because these are the things that aren’t being talked about!"

"Pitocin is a drug used to induce or augment labors here in the US. It is most often given via IV infusion, although immediately postpartum if an IV isn’t already in place it may be given as an intramuscular injection. It was created for the first time in 1953 and became available just 2 years later. Mothering magazine writes, “A survey by Robbie Davis-Floyd, a cultural anthropologist at the University of Texas, found that 81 percent of women in US hospitals receive Pitocin either to induce or augment their labors.” It has been said that only 3% medically require it." (emphasis mine)

I could copy the entire article into this post, but it would be better for you to read it at the source. Please read this important article about the real risks of pitocin:

Pit of Despair

Labor Induction Overused and Puts Mothers and Babies at Risk

My labor was induced with pitocin for the first 2 of my 5 children. After my second child was born I made the conscious decision that I didn't want to be induced again. I didn't like being hooked up to the IV and monitors for the entire labor and being confined to bed, as well as the lack of control over the process of birth itself. I felt that induction was unnatural, and I wanted to see what my body could do on its own with no medical induction or augmentation. That decision played a big part in my birthing journey, which has helped me learn to honor, work with, and trust my body, and has given me greater confidence in myself and faith in the natural order of life.

"In his classic book Husband-Coached Childbirth, Robert Bradley, MD, compares the arrival of human babies by nature's schedule to fruit ripening on a tree. Some apples ripen early, some late, but most show up right in season. Along with Grantley Dick-Read, the father of what we now call 'natural childbirth,' Bradley advocated relaxation, trusting nature, and allowing babies to show up when nature intended."

Let The Baby Decide: The Case Against Inducing Labor

This article goes into great detail in explaining the medical and cultural reasons and ramifications of inducing labor, and it touches on some of the same reasons I chose not to be medically induced again. There are so many reasons women and their care givers choose medical induction, and I think that expectant couples should understand the risks involved with those choices so they can make an active, informed choice in their own care.