Induction the process
Induction of labour.
This post is a short introduction to medical induction.
There are many reasons for induction of labour both medical and personal. However at the moment women seem to be offered inductions (or certainly there is a conversation with your NHS midwives) as early as 37 weeks even if you have a low risk healthy pregnancy with NO signs of complications.
This blog will briefly cover
What is a Sweeps?
What are Pessary Creams and how do they work?
What is Synthetic Oxytocin - I have a seperate blog post about this particular part of the induction process click here to read.
Sweeps to induce labour
A sweep involves a medical proffesional agrivating your cervix during an internal examination in the hope that this action causes a hormone response increasing prostoglandins to start labour. This maybe be descibed as “low level” intervention and can be done by your midwife at your routein check-in pregnancy appointments. You can ask for additional sweeps too and again these will usually be done in the setting of your midwife appointments. There are risks to having a sweep. Your midwife could introduce an infection into your vagina when completing the procedure, you could experience premature rupture of membranes (your waters might break) but contractions do not start are two common complications. It can fee pretty uncomfortable, but for some women it does work and is prefferable to the next stage of medically induced labour.
Pessary to induce labour
As you approach 40 weeks you could be offered the option of a pessary a cream incerted into the vagina with the intention of agitating the cervix and encouraging it to open. This is often done in a hospital setting. You can sometimes go home after this or you might stay in hospital.
If you have had a previous c-section is might be that instead of a pessary cream you are offered the foley balloon or other mechnaical method to irritate your cervix. Here a ballon is inserted into your cervix and then filled with water again to irritate your cervix.
As your cervix begins to soften and open your waters will then be broken by your medical professional.
Synthetic Oxytocin
Synthetic oxytocin via a drip that is controlled by a dial. The more oxytocin in your blood the more likely your uterus is to start to contract and begin labour. The level of oxytocin dictaes the strength and regularity of contractions and unlike a physiolgical birth when your body and baby respond to each other medically induced labour with synthetic oxytocin is controlled by your health practioner.
As you can see this is lengthy process it could take days. Especially if the creams or balloon do not work in the first instance. This means you may be looking at some time in hospital before your labour starts.
A personal experiance
There are many reasons given for why you might want to have any or all of the above interventions. I don’t often share my personal experience unless asked in person as I do not feel my experience relevant to your decisions however I will share this as I think it demonstrates the mindset behind birth culture in our medicalised system.
My first baby was “due” on the 28th of December. At 37.5 weeks I was offered a sweep which I agreed to, I understood what the process involved. I was not coerced but I felt it was something I “should” do. And the comment once I agreed to the procedure was “lets get this baby born before Christmas Day” On reflection that single sentence was so weighted! At Christmas there is reduced staffing so it would have been more convenient for the medical system if my baby was born before not during the festivities. (William bided his time after I refused a second sweep a week later and arrived on everyones return to normal working hours on the 3rd of Jan.) But the point is I felt a bit of an inconvience. Now really this is more of a reflection of the way I viewed myself at the time. I alsways tried to please others, I wanted to do the “right thing”. I didn’t want to be an inconvience. And I didn’t really trust that my body would do birth well. I did not trust my body.
In my experience of working with expctant women. All women actually is that generally we feel let down by our bodies we are conditioned to think they are bit inconveinient for having periods, a bit fat, a bit too small or too tall. And for those plus many other reasons we decide to trust the medical advice we are given because we arent possibly capable of managing a process that is so reliant on our body working well. That is why I have created my courses. My birth preparation and pregnancy yoga programmes are curated to help you to trust your body and love yourself because that is really the missing piece of the birth puzzle.
Induction of labour summary
For those of you in the early stages of birth prep this might be a good starting point for you but this just gives a VERY brief overview of what induction is. I strongly advise you do MORE research I have linked below a useful blog and two books you should read if you would like to know more about induction.
The most important thing to remember here is this is your choice! But that is easy for me to say sat here behind a laptop. It is hard to say no to a medical professional. Especially when we are taught to believe that all medicine is helpful to us. It saves us. In the case of birth I have found that this is not always true. If you want more support but struggle to research, understand and find evidence you can look at my courses by clicking here.
Additional Resources
https://midwifethinking.com/2015/03/18/induction-a-step-by-step-guide/ A great blog by Dr Rachel Reed explaining the full process of medical induction.
https://www.rachelreed.website/wim - a link to buy Dr Rachel Reed “Why Induction Matters”
https://www.sarawickham.com/iol/ - a link to buy Dr Sara Whickham “Inducing Labour”
