Labour induction: reasons, rules and ways

Sometimes, your Ob/gyn will propose you an induction of the labour. Let's see now why this can be proposed, and how.

We can distinguish two kinds of labour induction,1st: the medical reasons , and 2nd: the convenience reasons.

In the medical reasons labour induction, your physician discovers a pathology for the mother; (heart diseases, cancers...) or the baby (hypotrophy, diabetisis, too long pregnancy) or both (dysgravidy)... (non exhaustive list).

In these cases, the problem is to get the baby out, as soon as possible, even in case of prematurity (if the risk of prematurity is lower than the one of the induction reason). Sometimes, the physician directly performs a ceasarean section, sometimes he tries an induction. But it can be done in "bad conditions", and you can sometimes expect, in this case, the risk of ceasarean section anyway.

In the convenience reasons, you or your physician want to get your baby now, because of multiple reasons : you want it because you're fed up with the pregnancy, because you must be off in a week to have an exam or to see yor grand-mother... The imagination is large. Physicians generally want you to deliver for two reasons : it's better to deliver during the week than in week-ends : there are more people to help in the hospitals, he may want to go on vacation for several ways, he doesn't want to wake up at 3 AM... In all these reasons, you must considere that the induction can only be done if everything is OK to do it :1. 39 - 42 amenorrhea weeks,2. cervix status OK, 3. position of the baby OK,4. no previous ceasarean section.

To do the induction, your Ob/gyn can use several drugs : oxytocin, prostaglandines... The way he chooses is determined on multiple factors, but what You have to know is that you must have a monitoring of fetal heart and contractions continuous and steady.

In convenience reasons, the induction must not end in ceasarean section, except if a pathology appears during the labour (and in this case, you must consider it will appear in spontaneous labour too).

So, you understand your ob/gyn must not find a pseudo-medical reason to induce your labour. He tells you he wants you to deliver sooner and gives you the real reason. If it's not a medical one, you're a free to refuse. Everything is a question of the confidence relationship you have established with your practitioner.