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Round up a group of 10 moms, and you'll hear 10 different birth stories. We all came to be mothers in different ways whether through home birth, highly medicated hospital birth, c-sections, adoption, or something in between. At the end of the day, if you have a healthy baby, you win. Yes, even those moms who had a hair appointment scheduled so they have to fit in an induction and/or c-section on their own schedule. (Really? Do these women exist outside of print and online parenting magazines?)
Regardless, we all want to know how to improve the health of women and babies, so when a study comes out that highlights the connection between induction and c-sections, we should take note.
First, the obvious news. The least complicated (for both mother and baby) births occur between 38 and 39 weeks with the spontaneous occurrence of labor. Start veering outside these criteria, and that's where c-sections, intervention, and other problems can occur. But even inductions can be helpful rather than harmful if they are used for medically defined reasons. And if the induction occurs between 39 and 41 weeks, there is no more chance of c-section occurring than if a woman naturally goes into labor.
It's these non-defined optional reasons for induction that often result in c-sections, 67 percent of the time, in fact. And then you're talking higher rates of babies needing to hang out in the NICU, and potential health issues for both mom and baby.
While knowledge is power, and hopefully this will discourage women from storming their OB's office and demanding an induction at 35 weeks, I think it's also important to remember that you cannot control your labor and delivery. You can prepare, you can educate yourself, and you can be healthy and strong to ensure optimal conditions. But things do happen, and it's best to forget these statistics and simply work to get that baby into the world in the least dangerous way possible.
Did you have an induction that resulted in a c-section?
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