Now What? (sigh, vent, and looking for advice)
oprastr
member
Hi Ladies, I have been lurking here since finding out I was pregnant and have been committed to a natural birth from the beginning. Well, I found out a couple of weeks ago that I have a fairly rare condition called cholestasis. Besides driving me crazy, because I have itchy hands and feet at night, my chances of stillbirth have gone up. The condition is treated with a medication which I am taking but also by inducing around 37 weeks to reduce the chance of stillbirth.
So, I am really disappointed that I will probably end up with pitocin and then I am scared that all the preparation in the world won't save me from having to have an epidural because it will just be too painful. Here are my questions...I think I have read about a couple of ladies that had pitocin and didn't have an epidural, if you are still out there could you share your story again? I am also curious if there are any suggestions for getting labor started naturally that early? I plan on walking and having sex like a madwoman starting at 36 weeks but I'm not sure those things will do any good because my body probably won't be ready.
TIA!
Re: Now What? (sigh, vent, and looking for advice)
Well, I will tell you this. My OB said that pitocin is started at 2 milliunits per minute (mu/min) and increased by 1-2mu/min every 30 min to a maximum of 20 mu/min. He said most women start pushing by 10 mu/min and he almost NEVER has to go all the way to 20 mu/min.
BUT (here is where it's interesting), my OB is an older gentleman. He said when he was doing his residency (presumably 1960s/1970s), they STARTED pitocin at 10 or 20 mu/min and really had no maximum. So he said a lot of the pitocin "horror stories" were born (pun intended) from the era of this type of dosage.
In my case, I only experienced pitocin contrax, so I have nothing to compare them to (my water broke and I got induced like 9 hours later because no contrax started on their own). They hurt, but they were not *as* bad as I would have thought they'd be. They were manageable (most of the time).
I was talking to my SIL about this the other night, she's had 4 inductions and has been on pitocin for all of them. The last one she got up to 22 of pitocin! She stayed out of bed even though she was hooked up to the IV and the monitors. The nurses just had to keep coming in to adjust the monitors, but she wasn't forced to stay in bed or anything. She walked, bounced on the ball, leaned over the bed, and did some hypnobirthing techniques to stay calm and focused. She was also able to get in the tub for about 45 minutes at one point.
can you get a doula?
Gretchen Evie, born 7/8/2012 at 35w5d
pitocin isn't the only way to induce. you could ask for a membrane sweep if you are dilated at all by 37 weeks, this could stimulate contractions naturally, combine it with walking/ sex/ nipple stimulation etc. you could ask for a foley bulb, which is inserted into your cervix and dilates you to a 4 (the idea behind this is that the stimulation to the cervix will encourage contractions, as well as dilate you) your OB could also break your water, which will typically encourage some sort of contractions (not always) but you must keep in mind this puts you on the "clock" (especially if working with an OB)
I did not have to deal with pitocin contractions personally, but would suggest looking into a doula since you already know that this is the route your labor is headed...