Natural Birth
Refusing Induction..
My best friends sister had GD, and the doctor told her that her LO was measuring "big", so they wanted to induce her at 37 weeks. She went ahead and agreed to the induction. After the pitocin, cesection, and mess were over LO ended up being a whopping SEVEN pounds. A biggin, right? & everything was just fine with him.
DD was born early so I don't see this happening to me, but hypothetically....what if she were to say no? That she didn't want to be induced? What can a doctor technically do about it? Just nag at you to reconsider?
Warning
No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Refusing Induction..
Well, I'm an overeducated b*tch, so I'd bring in a copy of the ACOG guidelines on inducing for macrosomia and ask why my doctor thought we should go against it.
A doctor can't force you to do anything, but if we couldn't come to a satisfactory agreement (say, NST every couple of days or something), I wouldn't want that doctor delivering my baby. It seems very adversarial. I'd rather take the on-call or a resident than deal with that kind of negativity while giving birth.
Natural Birth Board FAQs
Cloth Diaper Review Sheet
True! I guess that puts things into perspective. I don't think my friend's sister was all that educated on the matter, she is the type to just wholeheartedly trust everything a doctor says.
I would like to go on record as saying there's nothing wrong with women that wholeheartedly trust their doctor (see the "Because it's time to post this study" and "keeping my mouth shut" posts if you want to know why I feel the need to say that).
However, doctors burned that bridge with me a long time ago. I'm going to blame a rotating cast of low-talent foreign doctors I saw growing up in rural Canada, but I stopped believing what I was told just because a doctor said it a long, long time ago. So knowing what I know now, I ask a lot of questions and tend to look into things for myself. Not just birth things, either.
Natural Birth Board FAQs
Cloth Diaper Review Sheet
Scary world we live in.
ETA: Let me back up and say you always have a right to refuse treatment, even when you're pregnant. Most doctors would respect right that unless they really believed you were putting your baby at risk. Induction for a large baby? I'm not sure that passes that test and they'd let you be with minimal grumbling.
A court order? Really? As in the doctor files charges against a patient to force her to have an induction?
You can say no thx and if they happen to drop you as a patient, you can always show up to L&D in labor.
I think doctors like to induce gd babies because there is a higher risk of stillbirth. A girl I know got induced around then with her baby for GD
Yes, sadly, there have been cases where a doctor or hospital has gone to court to order a woman to undergo a procedure, usually a csection, against her will, in the interests of the child. You can Google Angela Carder and pull up an ACLU page on various cases where a pregnant woman's wishes were disregarded because the state thought it had an interest to protect her fetus.
I added my ETA because I wanted to point out that I'm not talking about what would commonly happen. But it's another example of the vast power imbalance between healthcare providers and patients.
The best preparation would be to talk to your provider now and see what their policy is. I had diet controlled GD, and my doctor agreed that since my GD was so well controlled, that we wouldn't even start talking about induction unless I went past my due date. Hopefully you can come to an agreement ahead of time, it's important for you and your doctor to be on the same page. Even though my dr. agreed to not induce unless I went passed my due date, I knew going into it that she wasn't necessarily on board with me having a natural birth.
As it happened, I DID go past my due date, at which point my doctor kept trying to pressure me to get an induction. We compromised, and I agreed to get NSTs every other day for a few days. But, then she really started pressuring me, saying that LO was measuring big, my fluid levels were low, risk of still birth was increasing with every passing day, etc, etc.....she scheduled an induction for me. But I told her that I wanted to meet with her one last time, because we were still unsure about the induction. At that point, she asked if I wanted to meet with another doctor (we have Kaiser, so it was still the same provider) - so we met with another doctor, who proceeded to pressure us even more. He wanted to admit us right away for an induction, we told him that we had to pray about it and that we would get back to him that afternoon. I ended up going into labor that night (at 41.5 weeks), and had a healthy 7lb 3oz little girl. It was all very stressful, but I felt that it was the right decision for us and our LO. I never actually "refused" the induction, I just kept stalling until LO came on her own.
What the first poster said, plus the recent ACOG guidelines about not electing induction before 41 WEEKS if the cervix is not favorble. https://www.scienceandsensibility.org/?p=6256
She can absolutely say no. They can't fire you without finding a new care provider. Yes, they'd nag and want you to come in for all sorts of tests to find a medical reason. Play the dead baby card or c/s card. That first link by the first responder is a very good article.
As soon as I was diagnosed with GD I had the ACOG guidelines printed in my bag just in case. Too bad I ended up induced anyways due to high BP... But my OB was amazing I was extremely lucky with that.
I used to feel this way all the time about birth stories I would here. Why didn't they just say 'no'? But honestly, I've heard quite a few horror stories recently about babies that had significant birth injury due to not getting medical intervention in a timely way. Not to say we should all live in fear of the unlikely scenario, but doctors are responsible for not letting us get into those situations if they are preventable. Rather than going the adversarial route - I would try to ask more questions, counter with the best research/evidenced-based care protocols you can and simply try to buy time a little bit at a time...being open to using alternatives like non-stress tests (NST) to monitor baby's status will demonstrate to your doctor that you are on the same page as far as wanting to put baby first...it's just a matter of which path actually does that.
My first doula used to say a lot (in reference to building rapport with hospital staff/doctors), "you catch more flies with honey."
Your entire birth experience will be colored by your relationship with your doctor...if you are feeling adversarial towards them, I would consider finding one that is a better match for your values. Trust is essential when you are in labor.
Interesting topic, because my OB and I just discussed this today: I asked what her policy was if I go past term, and she said she recommends an induction at 41 weeks. I was visibly disappointed and asked her why 41 and not 42, and she very patiently explained that the most up-to-date science available shows a clear increase in the rate of stillbirths after 41 weeks (and before anyone jumps on me, yes, I'm looking this up myself, as well). However, she was quick to say that it was only her recommendation and that the final decision always rests with me and my husband. She also said that she does not care for inductions and will rarely recommend them for any other reason.
Honestly, it's this open and professional attitude of hers that makes me more likely to trust her judgement, so even though I'd like to be able to go to at least 10 days past EDD if not 14, I won't be as inclined to fight her as I would a more heavy-handed OB.
Point is, yes, you can refuse, but the doctor's personality will determine how professionally they respond.
I think it depends on how you handle it. I would think best case is as soon as you are diagnosed with GD you would discuss all of it and if they automatically jumped to induction and growth u/s you would ask why and debate then. If you can't agree find a new provider.
I "refused" to schedule an induction date for DS1 at my 41w3d appointment. I had no medical issues but they were getting inpatient. I had charted and knew my due date was off by 5 days so I was very much against inducing at that point.
I discussed the fact that I charted, I had a low bishop score, and agreed to do as many non-stress tests as they would like. I said if something legitimate comes up we will induce. They agreed and I went for the non-stress test and everything was fine. We scheduled another appointment for a couple of days later and wouldn't you know my water broke that night.
Natural M/c 12/13/08 at 8w5d
I was bullied into an attempted induction my 1st time around. It didn't work. I spent the whole weekend in the hospital and finally said NO to them wanting to break my water. I took my self home and waited for labor. The OB's office called me almost everyday saying I HAD to schedule another induction and I just kept on refusing.
It is up to you.
According to whom? I find this a mean and laughable assertion.
Sigh. I said in two places in this thread that I wasn't talking about common scenarios. I wasn't trying to be mean, and especially not trying to be funny.
But it has happened and there are a number of cases on the books. The case of Angela Carder, who was ordered to have a csection, got a lot of media attention in the 1990s and may be the best known.
Jessica Valenti's book, Why Have Kids?, has a whole chapter on this issue. She's a well known feminist writer.
See also: https://www.aclu.org/reproductivefreedom/coerciveandpunitivegovernmentalresponseswomensconductduringpregnancy
ETA: There should be hyphens between those words but mobile bumping took them out. Sorry about that. It's from the American Civil Liberties Union, but the University of Washington law school also has an article you can Google.