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Natural Birth
Necack
member
Would you switch?
Necack
member
Hi ladies! I had a dr appt yesterday and asked a bunch of questions to get a feel for the natural birth friendliness. For the most part, I like what I heard. The practice seems very flexible in terms of letting you move around, fetal monitoring, hep locks, not rushing delivery, pushing positions, newborn care, etc. my concern is this... Doc says she would guess that about 90% of women get epidurals, but most of them ask for it. She also said that she wanted to be honest with me that they use pitocin to augment labor quite frequently. Now I'm not sure if I should let myself worry about that because pitocin and epidurals usually go hand in hand. With 90% asking for epidurals, of course, they would get pitocin too. I wonder if I do not ask for an epidural, would they still try to give me pitocin? The doc also went straight to drugs when I asked about available interventions. Not sure how to gauge if thats her style or just an automatic response since most of her patients seem to ask for drugs. I posted on my local board about birth experiences at this specific hospital and the responses I got said that the nursing staff is very good about being flexible to your wishes and not pushing things on you.
so my question is, would you still switch your OB or just hire a good doula?
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Re: Would you switch?
I dont think I would switch necessarily, if you like the rest of the care you have received. If it sounds like they wont push it on you, then you would probably be ok. Its the nurses you need to be most aware of. The doctors generally dont see you for long throughout your labor, but show up toward the end.
If most people say the nurses are good, and you have a plan you can go with, you will probably be fine. That being said, its never a bad idea to hire a good doula. They are great interpreters between mothers/families and medical staff.
This.
That being said, I would switch, mostly because I prefer midwifery care, but if you have a good connection with your OB - that is important. Maybe see where your OB stands on exhausting all other methods before pitocin? And yes, I'd get a good doula!
I dont think I would switch based on that alone. It seems like pitocin is admid a lot to help speed up labor. So there are a few things you can do to prevent this. First, stay at home as long as possible. When you get to the hospital they put you on a clock, especially if your water has broken. So if you labor at home as long as possible this will help avoid a slow or stalled labor as they like to call it. Next, you can also avoid continuous cervical checks. This is another way they can gauge your labor and will tell you that you are slow or stalled at a certain dilation, so they want to give you pitocin to help speed it up. Third, you can hire a great doula who will help relax and motivate you during labor. Staying calm and relaxing will help your body/cervix do what it needs to do- dilate to 10 cm!
I did all three of these things and had a great, intervention free birth. I stayed home for 8 hrs then transitioned to the hospital. I was 6 cm and my water broke in triage. In the next 2 hrs I dilated to 10 cm and pushed my LO out!
If you have the time to look around for a provider who's more supportive of med-free birth, I'd do it. There's no harm in interviewing other providers. Are there any CNMs in your area? What's your doctor's specific c/s rate (and numbers, not "I only do them if they're necessary")?
DS2 - Oct 2010 (my VBAC baby!)
This.
For me, having a doula would make me OK with the situation you describe. If no doula, I would look into a midwife.
That being said, are there other OBs at your current practice? If so, I would make sure to ask others the same questions. I originally was with an OB practice and a couple of the Drs were good and told me hep lock and intermittent monitoring were OK, but a couple others said I would "be begging for an epidural at 36 wks" (which doesn't even make any sense) and that I had to have an IV per hospital policy (which I knew was not true). I didn't want to take my chances with getting one of those OBs in labor (and was not planning on a doula) so I switched to a midwife practice at 33 wks and it was, hands down, the best decision I ever made relative to my son's birth.
DS, May 2011
I wouldn't switch necessarily. I would ask in what circumstances they give pitocin - for example, at a lot of teaching hospitals, they give pitocin anytime a woman hasn't progressed at least a centimeter in two hours (so, they give them during what many midwives would consider to be natural plateaus in a normal labor).
Almost everywhere I work, the epidural rate is 90% of higher. The challenge in that is the staff aren't all that used to seeing unmedicated labor, and sometimes don't really know what to do to help a mom along and just leave her in bed. Were it me, I'd definitely consider hiring a doula.
NorCalMOMS bio* NorCalBOTB* babywearingBIO
Harmony Doula
All of this.
I would never deliver with an OB that has a high epi rate without a doula there. I would also make sure to stay home as long as possible before heading to the hospital to decrease the chances that you'll be pressured into something you don't want to do either by the hospital staff or the doc. If they aren't used to NB it may be a fight to stay on your birth plan.