Our records indicate that you have declined medical induction.
The medical induction was indicated for the following reasons:
1. Maternal age
2. High risk pregnancy
You have also been informed of the risk of declining said treatment/procedure, including fetal death, worsening maternal condition, irreversible neurologic (brain) fetal damage resulting in cerebral palsy, mental retardation, developmental delay and motor skills delay. You are also aware increased cesarean section risks and increased risk of poor fetal or maternal outcome.
By signing below you have indicated that you completely understand the risk of delaying or declining the above procedure and willingly have decided to do so.
From the beginning of classes, I had told her she had some other (great) options in the Ft. Worth area. Thanks to several of your comments on the Facebook page, she realized that she likely was not really high risk, and decided to go ahead and switch care providers. It was 39.3 weeks when she transferred to the UNT Midwives. Her charts had lots of doomsday stuff in it and the midwives recommended that she visit with their perinatologist. He commended her for declining the induction and told her there was absolutely nothing wrong with her, her baby, or her pregnancy! She had a fabulous unmedicated birth 4 days later!
I've had some overseas births (France and Switzerland) in the last couple of months who were really pushed into using pitocin too. One of them ended up not having it, but the other one did. The nurses were very aggressive in wanting to keep upping the dosage and the mom was barely on top of things as it was. She was dilating very quickly, but for some reason, the nurse wanted her baby to just fall out, I guess. It made for a very difficult labor for her. Afterwards, she hemorrhaged and battled dizziness for hours. The very quick labor really took a toll on her. Had they not pushed pitocin on her the way they did, she could have enjoyed her labor instead of gripping the rails, so to speak.
In 8 1/2 years of teaching, I've never had a baby die until recently. The mom was pressured into induction (those declination forms are really scaring) and had a uterine rupture due to "misuse of pitocin." The OB was extremely negligent and went in with a vacuum to try to get the baby out. The mom was only 9 centimeters. After 3 hours from the beginning of the rupture, they went to a code-red emergency c-section. The baby was flown to an out-of-state hospital where he received "head cooling" for the brain damage and hematoma from the vacuum attempts. The baby had such severe brain damage, after many tests, the parents were told the baby would not survive. He lived 18 days. They buried their sweet baby on November 1. To make matters worse, this mom had to go back in for surgery because they left 4 centimeters of placenta and membrane inside the uterus. She is understandably completely devastated. I sincerely hope she knows this is not her fault. This is the fault of her OB who pressured her into the induction and then went about it negligently. My heart goes out to her and her family. I am so very sorry they are living this tragedy.
As an Educator, I have gone through many emotions this weekend as I learned what happened to this couple and their baby. Women are being scared into induction -- being told it is the safe thing to do. Declining the induction is the unsafe route. Are these parents being told about the risks of the induction themselves? Never!
Did you know that a woman who is VBACing has the same risk of rupture as a woman who is being induced with pitocin, having never had a c-section? The women who are asking for VBACs are being told it's too dangerous -- they might rupture and kill their babies. But we NEVER hear of women being told about the risk of rupture when they are induced with pitocin. Never. Both carry a risk of less than 1%. Did you notice in the Treatment Declination form that it said that by declining induction, you were risking a cesarean section? I love that. When a woman is induced, she is twice as likely to have a cesarean than if she starts labor on her own.
Shame on these doctors for leading women to believe that induction is harmless. As birth advocates, we must stand up and be loud about the risks of induction! Risks to moms and risks to babies. These babies deserve their time to grow inside the uterus and not be forced out. They will let us know when they are ready to be born.
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