Another Baby Story, Another Induction turned Cesarean
By Homebirth Mama
January 31, 2008
I really should stop watching this show.
The Cabbot parents met while volunteering in
And so, at 37 weeks, mama goes in for an induction. A day later, after Pitocin induction, an unwanted epidural, and more Pitocin, she is still at only 4cm.
At this point, the doctor suggests a cesarean, because the baby is showing non-reassuring heart tones, which can indicate that he isn’t tolerating the labor well.
After the cesarean, the baby is born and weighs a mere 6 lbs, 2 oz. Which is quite normal for a baby delivered at 37 weeks.
It’s too bad that this mother was scared into induction for a condition that her baby did not have. She was devastated by the news that she would need a c-section, and even her husband was in tears over the ordeal (and not in a happy way).
This poor woman, who did so much to prepare herself for a natural, calming and joyful birth, had it ripped away from her because of a wrong diagnosis. But no one talks about this. They just say that she’s lucky her baby was healthy.
Imagine 10 years from now her son has stomach pains and is taken into the hospital for an emergency appendectomy, only to find out after the invasive surgery where they remove his appendix, that he just had gas. Wouldn’t the parents ask questions? Wouldn’t they ask why the doctors didn’t check to see if it was something normal? Would they be mad that their sweet child had to endure surgery for a false diagnosis? Would they want to know why doctors jumped to conclusions, exposing their son to infection and other long term consequences?
Or would they be happy that modern technology saved their son from an imaginary illness? Would they be satisfied with the experience, because the doctors were only trying to help?
Comments
4 Responses to “Another Baby Story, Another Induction turned Cesarean”
Got something to say?
Yup, I saw that episode this morning. The same exact thoughts were running through my head. And when the baby came out at more than six lbs I was more than a little annoyed but not too surprised. Not to mention that I’m not surprised the induction didn’t work - the babe obviously wasn’t ready to budge yet! It might have stayed in for another three, four weeks and added a little weight on. Blah. Sad.
The show Birth Day gets on my nerves too(why do I watch it?) The other day there was a woman in labor who was induced her child was showing “fetal distress” and they assumed they cord was being crushed and rushed her into a c-section ONLY to find the baby perfectly fine and NO CORD AROUND THE NECK! She was never given the chance to chage positions or anything, that really made me shake my head.
I’m a doula and unfortunately, I’ve seen this unfolding of events repeated so many times over. You would think that the docs would see the pattern and get a clue. *I* can see the pattern and I haven’t seen nearly as many births as they have.
@Jamie… They see the pattern, no doubt. But there’s not nearly the same profit by doing anything non-invasive or letting things progress normally.
They have shareholders and boat payments to think about.