*This post may contain affiliate links. So if you click through and buy something I may get a small amount of money, but it doesn’t change the prices of the items for you. Also, I only mention stuff I think will be helpful and add value to my readers.
I had to ask myself a question the other day. Because I realized that there is some trigger that is set off when this topic comes up. I physically feel a sinking dread when someone even mentions their plans to be induced into labor. So the other day I stopped and thought, Why do I feel like this? I’ve never been induced into labor. But then I remembered that I had indeed been induced with my first child.
And please, let me know if anyone can tell a positive experience of an induction that was smooth and positive. Because this isn’t going to start out positive. But I’ll wrap it up in a positive way, so don’t worry.
For my own self I realized I was actually coerced into an attempted induction of labor with my 1st son. But it was not with pitocin or medication. I was trying to be more “organic” I guess- so if I remember right I told them I didn’t want pitocin or other chemical inductions. But the Doctor insisted on stripping my membranes, which I was not happy about. I didn’t want to do this, but as usual they give you the fear and guilt treatment so you’ll go along with whatever they say. So they stripped my membranes and sent me home. A couple days later I had diarrhea and a low grade fever. Just what a pregnant woman needs right before birth, an infection.
But still, my 1st son was a stubborn little guy. He was determined to be born on my uncles birthday. He was about 10 days overdue when all was said and done. But only a week over when they did this procedure.
So then I was scheduled to go in for a pitocin induction a couple days later, but I missed that appointment on purpose. I didn’t want any more interventions, I just wanted him to come on his own, I knew it wouldn’t be much longer. I went into labor the night of the missed induction appointment. And he was coming fast. But I had to sit in the car for an hour and a half to get to our Doctor and the hospital we chose. Dumb choice. The car ride was like a little slice of hell. “Never again”, I said to myself. So all this to say…the word induction or induce or induced carries negative connotations for me. And I bet I’m not alone in that. I bet there are a lot of women out there that think of inductions or other painful interventions and experiences as how childbirth always has to be. Like they will relive this trauma for each child they conceive. I think the medical community has something to do with this. In my personal experience I felt like there was a lack of compassion for us mothers many times and that we were always being treated in a way that discouraged us from having more babies. And that we somehow deserved all the pain and torment that these procedures caused. I always felt like I was fighting against something and all I wanted was peace and rest.
So the complications of the attempt to induce labor by stripping my membranes only led to an infection that later they told us had gotten into my son’s blood. Also the complications of having an epidural were that I couldn’t feel anything so I didn’t know when to push. I was also paralyzed by the epidural so I couldn’t get up and walk, and nor would they allow it if I could. So that led to my son being at the point of birth for several hours which led to him being in distress and his heart rate was scaring everyone. The Doctor tried clamps to pull him out but only bruised his head. His shoulder was stuck in the birth canal. And they wouldn’t let me adjust my position much to help him shift. Finally the Doctor did a very severe episiotomy in all directions and was able to get him out. He was a handsome little guy. But he had a broken collar bone, bruises on his head, neck and shoulders and a pulled vocal nerve from all the pulling on his head and neck. And he couldn’t even cry, he would just make these weird raspy weezing noises.
All of these things we just kept covering with prayer. When something new would try to come against us, we’d pray some more. I really felt a breakthrough come after the birth when they came and told us he had an infection in his blood. In my spirit I stomped my foot and said, “No he doesn’t in the name of Jesus!” I was like, “Devil, you can come no further!” The next day they came and said that they thought they must have misdiagnosed him because for some reason he didn’t have an infection anymore. But I had gotten a 2nd opinion from my Great Physician- the Lord. That’s one of His names.You can always trust His diagnoses.
Then they didn’t want to let me leave with him because I intended to breast feed him and they wanted me to give him formula. They insisted on keeping him in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, so it was hard for me to try to get him to nurse, and get my milk to come in. But they gave me a breast pump and we worked so hard and finally got my milk in. What a victory when we finally left for home with him almost a week later.
Now, the only kind of “inducing labor” I do is taking some Evening Primrose Oil for a couple weeks before the baby is due and going about my business, I spend plenty of romantic time with my husband and I speak to my body and my baby. That may sound weird, but I got the idea from a book I’ve read so many many times by the late Jackie Mize, called “Supernatural Childbirth”.
She actually had 3 of her 4 children without any pain and very quickly. I also meditate on positive scriptures about childbirth, I listen and re listen to Jackie Mize’s testimony that I have on cd, and anyone else on youtube that has had a positive experience (and there are so many now). I read Jackie Mize’s book of prayers over myself. I tell the baby to get ready in the right position, head down, face up. I speak to all my body parts and tell them to be elastic and work the way they were created to work. And I pray and sing in the Holy Spirit. Since I’ve started doing these things I’ve had supernaturally quick deliveries, and so much more ease. I’ve even done these things in the hospital and had the nurses and Doctors ask me about it. They were impressed at how everything would just work right, and flow. One nurse said, at first she thought it was a little weird, but then the baby just came right out- like as if in response. And that was a nurse that didn’t even like me.
So even though I still associate negative connotations with Inducing Labor, I’ve learned the importance of letting the Peace of God RULE in my heart and I birth in a more gentle, peaceful way at home with a christian midwife. The times I have gone to a Doctor, I choose one at the local hospital that is only 10 to 15 minutes from home. Even then, I will always wait till my water has broken. That’s my sign I tell my body to give. And the sign that tells me when the baby will surely come soon is what they call, a “bloody show” and loss of the mucous plug. I pretty much wait around for those to show up and keep myself busy till then.
I hope I didn’t scare anyone too much, or freak anyone out. My aim was to point out that past traumas can become triggers of fear in our lives. I also wanted to share how I’ve worked through this process to have good experiences later on.
