I copied this from Luna Maya's blog, the birth center in Chiapas where my midwife is currently working.
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Cristina's Handy Guide To Surviving the Induction of Labor
SOUND FAMILIAR???
Seems like we have gone from "pregnancy can last anywhere between 38 and 42 weeks to"... "you are an oven and if your bun is in there for more than 40 weeks it will be horribly burnt and thus useless"...
Outside of out of hospital midwifery, the induction epidemic is rampant. I will not go into the dangers of induction in this entry. You can learn all about those in books, movies and webpages and by asking midwives. Instead I have created a list of questions to ask your doctor or midwife when they schedule or suggest an induction. I'd love to hear your comments:
10 Questions to Ask your Inducing Provider:
1. How many more years might I be pregnant?
2. If I am pregnant for another year will my child learn to walk and garble in the womb?
3. If my pregnancy lasts 3 years will my child learn to identify colors in the womb?
4. After you put the artificial oxitocin in my vein how do you expect to compensate for the other hormones that won't be naturally produced by my body that are necesary for labor, such as endophines, prolactin, catacolmines, prostaglandins.... and won't be produced by my body because of the artificial oxitocin.
5. How do you feel about the fact that I will be expereincing contractions that are about 3 times stronger than natural contractions? Does that matter to you at all? Will you be there to hold my hand and help me breathe?
6. How do you feel about my chances of me ending up in an emergency cesarean? Does that make you nervous at all? Are you pretty good at doing emergency cesareans?
7. After my baby is in intensive care for meconium aspiration, will you have any trouble sleeping at all? Do you think you might have nightmares?
8. After my baby comes home from the NICU and feels like a complete stranger to me, can you recommend where I can find my "maternal instincts" and "innate ability to breastfeed"?
9. What are your thoughts on the fact that, if my baby hasn't initiated labor maybe its not ready to be born, may be too small, not ready to breathe, not ready to handle extrauterine life, and may need another week to mature?
10. So, can you, once again, really clearly explain to me why it is dangerous for my baby to stay within MY womb, where it has lived its ENTIRE life for another week?