Getting Real with Kira Hazledine

I’ve heard horror stories about inductions that sound nothing like my own experiences. Inductions that lasted days and many that resulted in emergency c-sections. There are mothers that insist their babies were forced out when they were ready, even when their gestational age read 40 plus weeks. I’m not saying anyone is wrong, or that natural birthing is a load of crap. I just see incredible value in medical interventions.

People used to die in childbirth all the time.

All. The. Time.

Women and their babies.

I’m uncertain that my daughter and I would have survived her birth without medical intervention. Yes, we were in the middle of an induction, but I never even touched Pitocin. She was in distress because of cord placement, and had the doctor not acted quickly, I can’t imagine what would have happened. If I had dared push to my 42 weeks against the advisement of my doctors, things could have turned out very differently. This was with a completely healthy pregnancy.

I know that my induction experience was positive and that changes things for women. I bet that I would be more reluctant to have a second induction if the first one had been horrible.

However.

I trust my doctors.

I don’t have a medical license. I only know what doctors, googling, and birth boards have told me. So I defer to my doctors. Everything is circumstantial, and not every birth is going to be the same.

My first birth was more traumatic than I realized, and I know more about how much danger my daughter and I were in now that I’ve been through a very similar induction a second time. Shit got real. Recovery sucked. A different perspective could have prompted me to refuse an induction and try to go naturally.

And part of me really did want to go into labor naturally. I was not looking forward to a repeat of being tossed into labor without warning with only a touch of cervidil. I was hoping a natural labor wouldn’t be so sudden and I could progress more slowly.

Of course, that was not to be. I was progressing less with my second pregnancy at full term than I had with my first. An induction was scheduled, and I whole-heartedly agreed. I wanted to meet my baby and I trusted my doctors. I asked questions and I made my intentions known ahead of time when I got to the hospital. My birth went smoothly, and although everything was a bit more vivid (including the pain, yay!) the overall experience was better than my first.

Perhaps I would have gone into labor naturally on my own closer to 2 weeks. However, there’s a real risk to extending pregnancy. I’m less worried about medical interventions and more worried about holding out for something that just isn’t going to happen for me. Waiting could have harmed my first and second child. So even if my first induction had sucked balls, guess what? I probably would have agreed. I trust medical advice, because I don’t know anything different. If I’m going to trust these people with my own life and my baby’s, I need to be all in. It’s one thing to advocate for yourself and make informed medical choices, and it’s another to make decisions out of fear. Negative things happen. My first born was literally ripped out of my body, and yes, I felt every bit of that. My second was delivered in 13 minutes of pushing and an hour of active labor, zero complications. It can be different.

If medical intervention during labor and delivery sucked for you, I’m sorry, but I only ask that you try to change your perspective. They probably saved your life, and your baby’s life.