Are there any major complications to induction?

S

shakeshack

Registered User
Saw dr for week 39 visit and we were recommended induction at week 40 if we are still pregnant. I'm all for it bec the risk of emergency c section if baby gets too big for me to push sounds worse than inducing natural labor. Any risks to the induction drugs? The medicine dr mentioned is different from the us ones.
 
Your doctor should be able to tell you about the comprehensive risks, so definitely ask her/him. That being said, if it is a routine induction and you will want an epidural then they will recommend you go on that at the same time, as being induced can kickstart you into a much more active (ie painful) stage of labor and so you will want to already be numb. One potential risk then is getting the right amount of epidural - for me, by the time I was ready to push I still couldn't feel anything, so had to be coached on when it was time, and therefore it took a really long time and was quite frustrating. But since I didn't feel labor pains I can't quite complain, either!
 
I was induced at 38 weeks for medical reasons and had an epidural, but I didn't keep topping it up towards the end so that I could feel to push the baby out.
Labour was 6 hours from induction to birth and the pushing stage was maybe 20 mins. It was my first baby. The pushing stage was a little painful but I think it is better to feel what was going on.
There are risks with any medical procedure so ask your doctor to confirm them with you and ultimately you and your doctor can decide whether induction or waiting for labour to start on it's own is the option with the least risks.
 
If you're worried about emergency C section, do not induce thinking that you will avoid that. Inductions have a significantly higher rate of failure than one that is not induced - so chances are you will be MORE likely to need an emergency C section because your body is just not ready yet. Also the one thing that determines whether or not vaginal birth will be possible or not is the size of the head, not the weight of the baby. And I don't think that the size of the head is HUGELY larger at week 41 than it is at week 42.

Other "complications" the risk of the baby being not yet ready and needing special care/NICU after birth, a more painful delivery, etc...

PERSONALLY I wouldn't recommend induction if it was not medically necessary, or if it was not for "good reason" such as the father leaving on military duty or something like that... Although my 2nd daughter was induced at 41 weeks - mostly because I'd had a very stressful pregnancy and wanted my mum to be around for the birth - and at the time, she was due to leave in about 5 days... Ultimately it's your choice - but don't be pressured by your doctor. Of course your doctor would prefer you to be induced, it's much easier to schedule it in if you plan it in advance. But do the research and make up your own mind based on your circumstances :)
 
As others have mentioned you need to ask your doctor about the risks; ironically one of the main risks of induction is an increased need for an emergency caesarian. Just be aware that in HK most doctors want to induce much earlier than would happen in a lot of other countries - 40 weeks is still early as all due dates are an estimate and different people have different gestation lengths. So your normal may be 41 weeks and you would go into labour naturally at that time.
Your baby is ready when it is ready and just because you go past your due date doesn't mean your baby will be too big, in fact it is unlikely although for some reason lots of doctors here seem to suggest otherwise.

For what it's worth i have had two inductions, the first because labour started and my waters broke but they then stopped and hadn't restarted after 12 hours; so i was given syntocin via a drip.(Baby was 40 + 4) Labour definitely came on quite hard and fast but I was able to labour without pain relief for 6 hours or so and that was with contractions every minute after about the first half hour. I ended up having an epidural due to forceps delivery (was prepped for an emergency caesar but luckily wasn't needed) after pushing for 2.5 hours.

Second time baby was 41+3 and i was induced from scratch, my cervix was already open so didn't need any gel but they broke my waters and put me on syntocin drip. This time labour escalated much more normally (I had been having contractions for weeks and it was 2nd time) and was shorter. Managed without any pain relief and baby was 4.5kgs (10 lbs) and had no problems pushing him out.

I think the closer you are to going into labour naturally the better as even if you are induced your baby and body are ready to birth, so please ask your doctor about this too (and make sure he is not recommending induction to fit you into his schedule!)
 
What Nicole said, I wouldn't do an induction at 40 weeks unless medically necessary. It's much better to go into labour naturally when both you and the baby are ready if at all possible. My son was born naturally at 41 weeks and 5 days and was 50th percentile weight and length, the due date is just an indication of when you might give birth not a deadline to give birth by and some babies need a bit longer to mature.

Do some research as I suspect that an induced birth is more likely to end up in an emergency c-section than a natural labour past 40 weeks. I would make another appointment with your doctor and get him to explain why he thinks an induction at 40 weeks is medically necessary, it may be good medical advice for your particular case or something he is recommending for his own convenience?
 
In Canada, and many Western European countries, they only induce "late" babies at about 42 weeks. The due date is only a rough estimate. It's not like a baby that is 40 weeks and 2 days is really much later.

I think in HK doctors are just too eager to medicalize everything. I've heard of HK mothers who wanted natural births, but were frightened into C-sections / inductions because their babies were too big. But their babies ended up at very normal weights, like 7 lbs.
 
At my appointment one day before my due date, my obgyn said she can induce me if I wanted, because from that point on it was a 'waiting game.' I was only 1cm dilated but she said cervix was ripe for induction. I said I would think about it. The baby came on her own less than 24 hours later.

Also, the ultrasound measured my baby to be over 8.5lbs at that point, and my baby was only 7 lbs at birth.
 
would agree with nicolejoy - my first babies head was SO big i should have either been induced / had a c-section but my doc was on "holiday" and the substitute doctor "asked me" if I wanted an induction - and being my 1st baby, i had not planned on my doc not being there as i told her "do anything necessary to ensure that my baby is fine" - when you are lying there on the bed trying to push, at least with me, all i could remember was the prenatal classes i took that told me all the negatives of induction and so of course i said NO to the induction- in the end my baby was in NICU for 10 days at QMH though she was born at Matilda, and was on a life saving machine for 3 of those days as critical....what i just want to make sure is that you tell the doctor that if "induction" is best then do it - of course, do more research, but when you're in labour you have a tendency to forget - let your husband know, write it down on your birth so you don't have to be asked when you are not in the right frame of mind.
 
To answer your question I labored for 7 hours after induction, and the epidural probably wore off at some point but they topped it off as they said it should wear off by the time it was ready to push, and it didn't. :P Sounds like other people labored 6 hours from induction, so that's a similar time frame. It took me longer I think to push the baby out due to the fact that I couldn't feel the contractions due to the overdose of epidural. My doc induced me because my waters had broken prematurely during the pelvic exam, and they worry about infection if you don't go into labor naturally after that, which I didn't.
 
THanks all for the helpful replies. The Dr said the main reason for recommending induction is although baby's head is average, relative to my pre-pregnancy 107 LB 5'2" frame, going past 41 weeks might be tough if baby's head gets bigger. Last 3 weekly appts and no more growth in the size of baby's head or weight and the weight estimate now is 3.2 KG w/c i think i can manage. Also he mentioned meconium as a possible risk if the baby stays longer than 41 wks. We are scheduled to induce at 40.5 wks, but I DO fear an emerg C and would rather wait if we are not yet ready.
 
If you would rather wait, then refuse the induction - or schedule it more like at 42 weeks when they do it in many other countries. 40.5 weeks isn't "overdue" by hardly anyone's definition!! Of course if that's what you want, then by all means go ahead and do it. I'm just saying this because in your post, you sound like you would rather not induce at 40.5 weeks, even though it's been scheduled...
 
3.2 kg is a totally average 7-lb baby. and 5'2" / 107 lbs is not particularly small for a HK woman.
.5 weeks sounds ridiculous. what's that? 3.5 days?
did you ask him why he doesn't do it at 41 / 41.5 / 42 weeks? is it for a dire medical emergency? or just scheduling convenience / being overly cautious?
just curious -- are you at public or private?
 
It does sound a little like your doctor is trying to 'scare' you into an induction. Ohhh, you're small, baby's big, risk of merconium etc... is he putting the other point of view to you at all. i.e. that waiting until At Least 41 weeks is most likely to result in natural labour which will be better for you and for baby (as shown by the SMH article above). Also that the risk of merconium being in the amniotic fluid is small, is most likely to happen when the baby is stressed during labour which induction wouldn't avoid if it's going to happen at all, plus the baby is not necessarily going to have any ill effects from aspirating merconium. As I said my baby was two weeks 'late' and he did aspirate merconium, was born, threw up a lot the first night and was fine.

I'm not saying you should or shouldn't induce, the decision has to be yours but your doctor seems very keen on persuading you?
 
personally had a horrible experience with merconium aspirtation where my daughter was in NICU in critical condition for 3 days due to that...all i know is that my 2nd doctor said that i should have had the baby 1.5 hrs earlier than i did and the whole trauma would have been avoided...don't know what that means in terms of meconium aspiration - but that really is not to be taken lightly. anyhow, just ask your doctor about the amniotic fluid each time and that should be a good indicator....also, if you need another opinion RE induction perhaps you can search the web to see what others think to decide for yourself (and not be led to do it by doctor for non-medical reasons)....
 
Sorry, leslie, I really wasn't meaning to make light of merconium aspiration, I know it can be serious and I can't imagine how horrible it was to have your little one in NICU. I was just trying to illustrate that the doctor can't really cite it as a reason to induce at 40.5 weeks without some more information to back that up. As you say, the OP probably needs to get more information.
 
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