5 Questions About Inducing Labor Naturally| Memorial Healthcare System (2024)

FAQs

What questions to ask when being induced? ›

If your care provider begins to mention induction at 39 or 40 weeks, I encourage you to ask your provider questions such as: - Am I healthy and safe? - Is my baby healthy and safe? - What are the medical benefits of inducing?

Your provider may recommend inducing labor if your health or your baby's health is at risk or if you're 2 weeks or more past your due date. For some women, inducing labor is the best way to keep mom and baby healthy. Inducing labor should be for medical reasons only.

Research shows that inducing labor during this time lowers several risks. Risks include having a stillbirth, having a large baby and getting high blood pressure during pregnancy. It's important that you and your healthcare professional share in the decision to induce labor at 39 to 40 weeks.

Providers often use a medicine called oxytocin to induce labor. This medicine is the man-made form of a hormone that helps start contractions. At the hospital, your provider gives you oxytocin through an IV (a needle into a vein). It may make you have really strong contractions.

To decide if you need labor induction, a healthcare professional looks at several factors. These include your health. They also include the baby's health, gestational age, weight estimate, size and position in the uterus.

Summary. Induction is a planned process designed to welcome new members of staff to an organisation and to provide them with appropriate information, training and support through their first few weeks and months.

Inducing labor (or labor induction) is when doctors use medicines or other medical methods to bring on labor before a woman goes into labor on her own. Usually, it's done when the health of the mother or the baby might be at risk if the pregnancy continues.

Nature is not perfect. However, when it comes to babies and birth, unless there is a clear medical indication that induction of labor will do more good than harm, nature beats science hands down. For both mothers and babies, it is safe and wise to wait patiently until labor begins on its own.

Induced labor results in more postpartum hemorrhage than spontaneous labor, which increases the risk for blood transfusion, hysterectomy, placenta implantation abnormalities in future pregnancies, a longer hospital stay, and more hospital readmissions.

Is it better to be induced or natural labor? ›

A large study found that, for healthy women, inducing labor at full term rather than waiting for natural labor doesn't increase the risk of major complications for newborns. The findings also reverse the notion that inducing labor at full term increases the risk of needing surgical delivery.

The ultimate advantage of induction is when there is no question that it is safer for your baby to be born soon, than to continue the pregnancy. Although induction is often associated with a long, slow start to labour, it can also work quickly for some women. Labour can be a shorter, if more intense experience.

With some induction methods, the uterus can be overstimulated, causing it to contract too often. Too many contractions may lead to changes in the fetal heart rate. Other risks of cervical ripening and labor induction can include infection in the woman or her fetus.

Very occasionally, labor induction doesn't work, especially if the cervix isn't effaced and dilated. If this is the case for you, your practitioner may try to induce labor again or opt for a C-section.

Induced labour is usually more painful than labour that starts on its own. Your pain relief options during labour are not restricted by being induced. You should have access to all the pain relief options usually available, such as an epidural or water birth.

The increased monitoring can mean you're less able to move around. That in turn can increase pain and stress, and this can quickly lead to a woman feeling that things have spiralled out of her control. Not everybody finds this a problem, but it is something to be aware of. Induction can also take quite a long time.

There aren't any rules on how long you can be in labor or how long it takes until delivery. However, the majority of people progress into “active” labor within 24 hours of an induction. Active labor is when your cervix reaches about 6 centimeters (cm).

Chat to your care provider about your options.

sink into the comforting things that prompt the natural flow of oxytocin. Watch a funny movie, cuddle your partner, kiss, dance to your favourite music. be in a dark space to encourage the release of melatonin (which works in tandem with oxytocin to prompt contractions).