I never had an abortion. But I did allow myself and my son to be induced. I now wished I waited for labor to start on its own. This was my first pregnancy.
Here is my story:
I was 40 weeks and 5 day when I went to my last prenatal appointment. It was a Monday. My doctor suggested that if I don't go into labor by Thursday that I should be induced. I would be 41 weeks and 1 day on Thursday. I told him that I read that a pregnancy can go to 42 weeks.
He himself said that I am doing well and my baby is doing well. Why not wait another week? My OB points out that my 20 weeks U/S dated my baby at 22 weeks. My OB feels that by Thursday I would really be 43 weeks along rather than 41 weeks and a day. So I said okay. I got a bad gut feeling about going along with an induction, mostly because we were expecting a hurricane on Thursday.
I found scheduling an induction on a hurricane day is strange. I didn't hear of "hurricane inductions" till I moved to Florida. Some doctors schedule induction on hurricane days, because they fear that the change in air pressure might cause some of their term clients to go into labor. Some doctor just suggest that their term clients just hang out at the hospital just in case the clients go into labor. Perhaps that is why my OB scheduled me to be induced on a hurricane day. My cervix was very ripe. My OB felt that I could go into labor any moment.
By Thursday morning I hadn't gone into labor yet. So off to the hospital for me. At least the hurricane we were expecting will only be a tropical storm by the time it hit my area. At 8am the Pit drip was started.
At 11am my husband stepped out to get something to eat. My contractions were mild. I asked for something to eat. Labor can take hours and I needed to keep my strength up. The hospital only gave me Jello and flavored ice, basically sugar water. I recalled talking to my OB about food in labor at one of my prenatals. He said chicken broth was fine. I asked a nurse if I can please have some chicken broth. She said that Jello and flavored ice was all my OB order so that is all I could have. I should of asked the nurse to asked the OB to order me some chicken broth, but I didn't. I just ate my sugar water. I didn't want to cause trouble. After my husband had his lunch, he returned.
Sometime in the afternoon my OB broke my water with my permission. The contractions before my water was broken were easy. The contractions right after my water was broken were more intense. With my water broken meant that I was at the "point of no return". I need to deliver the baby that night, or else they would have to section him out (due to infection risk).
At some point I want some pain meds to "take the edge off". I only wanted a little. A nurse suggest a half dose. I agreed to a half dose of Stadol injected into my I.V. As soon as the meds were placed in my I.V. I felt disoriented. I decided I definitely don't want the other half.
In the late afternoon it started to pour rain. The tropical storm had arrived. The T.V. was set to a news station which informed one of the nurses that her class was cancel for the night. A student nurse tried to take my blood pressure in between contractions. She tried many times, but each time the machine tightened the cuff during contractions. This was very uncomfortable for me. Each time it happened she apologized.
My contractions were close together, so I was almost done. They were also getting so strong that it made it hard for the external fetal monitor to keep track of my son's heart rate during contractions. They screwed a internal fetal monitor to my son's head.
Around 7pm, I was checked one last time. I was almost complete. There was a bit of lip left. My OB asked if he could move the lip out of the way. I consented. Now it was time to push. They laid paper covering over my tummy and legs. My OB guarded his territory. He claimed that the area covered by the paper needed to be kept sterile. My husband was not allowed to touch the "sterile" area. With my pushes there was poops coming out of my anus. That area was not that sterile.
Some of the nurses coached me through my pushes. I was instructed to sit up more during pushes (semi-sitting position). Good. I told to hold my breath while pushing as a nurse, near my head, counts. Bad! I was told to push downward towards my perineum. Good.
Pretty soon my son's head was almost at my perineum. I felt a needle at my perineum. My OB was giving me a perineum block and he didn't ask first. I made a comment about my perineum. My OB responded that my perineum "was beautiful". I should have responded, "
Then why are you giving me an episiotomy!". Instead I let my OB cut my perineum. My husband was horrified to see me get cut down there.
About 7:45 pm, I pushed my son out. My OB caught him. My son got all the normal post birth treatment. My son's APGAR was 9 and 9, because he was a little blue. They wrapped him and gave him to my husband to hold. My husband stared at our son and spoke softly to him.
After stitching up my perineum, my OB leaves in a hurry because his house is flooding due to the storm.
All things considered: I did do a bunch of reading and studying while pregnant that first time. I made the best choices based on the information I understood at the time. But from what I learned about pregnancy and birth over the years, causes me to wish that I wasn't induced. I regret my induction.
Were you induced? Do you now wish things had gone differently?
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Comments (37)
Why regret it? Is your son a mutant? Do you not love him? Were you incapable of having more kids? No no & no! :)
I regret my induction, too, because it ended in an unnecessary cesarean. However, I find it a little strong the way you started this blog. You never had an abortion, but you regret your induction?
I'm really confused at that. Why state the first at all? Your son didn't die. I think it's kind of insensitive.
A lot of first time moms are induced. You shouldn't regret it My mom had to be induced for me and thank God she was because I was 9 pounds and 3 ounces, and 21.5 inches long. Because I was larger and 2 weeks late, it may have been the cause of me getting fluid in my lungs at the time of delivery.
Being induced was probably the safer option.
I'm not sure what about it is what you regret.
I was confused from the beginning too. I was expecting a tragic ending. Your labour and delivery sound pretty average to me. And he scored well on his APGARs. How did you expect it to be better if he was born a week later?
I was induced on the 11th, at 40 weeks, and I don't regret it at all. I had a fantastic labor and delivery and have a gorgeous, healthy 15-day-old son now.
@milfncookies@xanga - Agreed!
I agree with the first poster. It really isn't worth it to regret it. Your son is alive. Neither you nor him were harmed by being induced. The next time you get pregnant, shop for your OB until you find one whose philosophy about birth is the same as yours. It's not worth regretting something that can not be changed.
The start of this entry had me really confused and I didn't really see the co-relation between an induction and an abortion.
I was induced and was very happy with the decision. I got the drugs I wanted and had a great OB. BUT most of all, the baby was beautiful and healthy.
Who's to say these things would not have happened without an induction? Perhaps what you should regret is your choice in OB...just sayin'
My mother had a C section. Apparently I took several extra days, most of which my mother was trying to get work done because she owned a copier company at the time. In the 90s that didn't mean a netbook perched on her stomach, either.
She was signing payroll, coaching service techs, and most likely trying to sell the hospital a new copier while she was pushing me through her vagina.
I am with other posters what is it you regret? Your dr. would only cut you to prevent a tear, I wish my dr. would have spared me my 4th degree tear, I might still have feeling down there. I was induced with all 5 of my kids. the first one because she was still born at 39 weeks 5 days. The others to prevent the same outcome as the 1st. and my blood pressure. I did not think a apgar could get any better then a 9 9. but I may be wrong since it has been almost 3 years since I had my last one. I hope you and baby are doing well. the important part is that you have a healthy baby and you are both doing well.
Reading stories like these just make me more certain that I want a midwife, doula and home birth when I get pregnant. I hate needles and hospitals.
Everyone I know (in person) who has been induced has said it makes labour worse.
I am just wondering why you would want to carry that regret with you?? Your baby was born healthy, and you went on to have more (from the info beside this post) so why would you want to dwell on it?? Seems like wasted energy to me.
And if you waited a week later and your baby was dead, you'd be dealing with a whole different issue. Be thankful your doctor decided to induce you rather than have you have to push out a stillborn. If you have never weathered a hurricane down here, know that the hospital can lose power and if you needed emergency surgery to save the life of your child, you wouldn't have had it.
You have a child that is happy and healthy. You should be thankful for that. Not bitching here to other mothers who deal with issues far worse than yours.
i was induced on the 8th of this month, pit drip started at 630 water broke at 7. stadol at 10 epi at 12 baby at 3. no problems, except that i tore and had to be stitched. my dr was great, just told me to let my body do what it wanted/needed. all he did was make sure she didnt fall on the floor when she came out! lol.
i think the problem was with your dr not with the induction. you should find a better dr next time
I don't understand why you regret anything. Be grateful that your son is alive and healthy!
Your perineum was "beautiful?" Uhhhh, why do doctors make the most AWKWARD comments in the world?
And why start off this post by mentioning abortion? That just seems insensitive and completely irrelevant...
@sarahsmurfette@xanga - Yeah, I thought that was where it was going and even skipped immediately to the bottom to find out what bad thing had happened to her baby. And...it sounds like he was fine? I understand regretting it for whatever reason, but I don't think that was an appropriate way to start.
This was just weird reading. Maybe it's just your writing style. It was odd to switch from very medical talk and "kid" talk in one sentence "poops from my anus". Yeah...and you didn't say exactly why you regretted it. But whatever. Hope you won't be grading any writing assignments for your kids if you home school them.
My original version of my son's birth story mentioned "Priests for Life's "I regret my abortion/ I regret my lost fatherhood campaign". Fr. Frank Pavone was/is asking for "I regret my abortion/ I regret my lost fatherhood" stories. This gave me the idea to write a "I Regret My Induction" story. When it was posted on Momaroo it was edited out. In my opinion is that the "I never had an abortion." statement is out of place without mentioning Priests for Life's I regret my abortion/ I regret my lost fatherhood campaign.
I Regret My Induction is based on "If I could do it over again, I would do it differently" regret. The purpose for writing this story was to share that even though we had a good outcome I wished I didn't induce. I wish, just like his younger siblings, I allowed my son to be born in his own time. As parents we make many choices that if given a second chance we would choose differently. Since lots of expecting parent face the decision to induce or not induce, I wanted to share my story.
@Helena_Zita@xanga - And that is ok! I wish that I could have spoken up a lot in my labors as well. This last time (my 3rd labor) took 9 hrs! I felt like I was letting down everyone by taking so long. The main reason it took so long was because they told me that I had to stay in the bed for the first 20 mins which turned into an hour to an hour and a half, that really slowed me down. So I get it. I did have an episiotomy my first time around too BUT I was asked and told why I needed one so I consented. I also had to be catheterized twice and I was doing it all natural. I am glad that the baby was healthy though, that was a big ordeal and I hate how this country is going with L&D.
For contrast I have another pregnancy story.
With my third pregnancy because of an ultrasound done at 22 weeks since LMP, the doctor knocked off five weeks off my EDD. I told his nurse that I had felt quickening three week earlier that I did with my two previous pregnancies. I also told her that with my two previous pregnancies the 20 weeks ultrasounds measured EDD two weeks later that I was both times (based of LMP). I felt that the new EDD should be three weeks earlier rather than five weeks. But they decided to go with the EDD based on the ultrasound report. I fired that doctor and found a midwife that agreed with me that new EDD should be three weeks earlier rather than five.
The ultrasound report had an error margin of plus or minus sixteen days on the calculation of the EDD. My third child was born exactly sixteen days past the EDD in the report. The day he was born closer the "three weeks earlier " date that the "five weeks earlier" date. If I didn't fired the doctor, I would have been pressured to induce no later the new EDD in the report. The doctor felt that my "real" due date was sixteen days earlier than the EDD in the ultrasound report.
Boy, I am glad I didn't induce my third child. By the way, my third born was big, strong, and healthy at birth.
@Rose_Hikari@xanga - I was told I had a good looking cervix many times lol
I was induced with my daughter...I won't regret it ever...in fact it was one of the best choices I made. She was 42 weeks when she was born and although she was only 7.8lbs she was ready my "cervix" wasn't ever "ripe" until I was being induced.
you might have regretted it more if you weren't induced and had to have him during a storm where you didn't have access to a hospital if there was a complication
What you are experiencing is normal. You didn't have the labor experience that you prepared for and you're feeling a bit let down over it. It's okay to feel that way, and honestly, over time it will fade. You'll get caught up in this little baby boy and all the wonders of watching him grow.
I have two sons....they are 15 and 12 now. I can close my eyes and remember the moment the nurses passed them to me. I remember both pregnancies, both labors, both episiotomies, both epidurals.....but those times are like snapshots now. There have been so many moments to remember in between....
This you must remember.....life passes in the blink of an eye....It is not perfect, but that is part of it's beauty. Enjoy every moment with your son....Every age is the best....Play is good and necessary to balance you heart and your head......The best gift that you will ever give those you love is time with you.
For anyone who doesn't understand WHY this was written, I highly suggest you watch the movie "The Business of Being Born".
I agree with you.