My first two babies had followed exactly the same pattern with regard to their gestation and birth: both of them were born on the 11th day after my due date. I was expecting my third little one to do the same, but he surprised me by hanging on until the 16th day after the due date. Kathy, my CNM (Certified Nurse-Midwife), who runs the birth center where I'd given birth to my baby girl and planned to give birth to this third baby of mine as well, was legally supposed to refer me to a hospital for induction as soon as I passed 42 weeks (i.e., two weeks beyond my due date). She knew I didn't want that, so instead, she began taking action to help me give birth as soon as possible at the birth center. She gave me an exam that included poking her finger into my cervix (ouch!), and told me afterward that her doing that might get things moving along. If not, she said, I would have to come back in two days to get induced at the birth center. She said the drug they would use for the induction would be gentler than Pitocin. I can't recall what she said about it for certain, but it may have been that rather than itself being an artificial oxytocin, it would instead stimulate my body to produce its own oxytocin and thus trigger labor in a way that more closely mimicked nature.
While I did have some appreciation for that, it didn't really make any difference to my feelings about the idea of being induced, which were very negative. On the way home from my appointment at the birth center that day (Monday, November 27th, 2017), I wrestled internally with what to do. I have always had an extremely strong conviction that God and Mother Nature know best and that modern doctors tend to meddle way too much with the birth process. I had read stories where the due date being used had turned out to be wrong, and induced labor had led to the birth of babies who were not really ready to be born yet. I had recently read that different women's bodies behave differently from each other in regard to how quickly their embryos begin developing at the outset of their pregnancies; in some women that process takes longer to get started, and so their late-blooming babies need more time in the womb to reach the same stage of development as other women's babies. True, the chance of stillbirth does increase in a post-term pregnancy -- but only slightly: oh, so slightly!! The vast majority of post-term babies are born perfectly healthy. I felt very strongly that allowing Mother Nature to decide when my baby was ready to be born, and letting him stay in my womb until that time arrived, was a very, VERY safe and OK risk to take, and I did not want to do things any other way. Being forced to accept an induction against my wishes felt so outrageous to me, and I resented and hated it so much, that I agonized over what to do if, in fact, I did not go into labor within the next two days. Should I even keep the appointment that Kathy had had me make, to go have a procedure done that I did not want or agree with? Or should I be rebellious and just stay home and let my baby come when he was ready, like I wanted to do? It might be illegal for Kathy to not comply with the requirement that I be induced, but it wasn't illegal for me to fail to show up at my appointment, or to give birth at home without medical assistance, was it?! I didn't want to give birth at home without medical assistance -- I wanted to give birth at the birth center!! -- but the idea of forced induction made me feel so disturbed that I practically felt driven to such drastic measures.
Or, I thought, I could do my research and figure out which of the hospitals around here is the most natural-birth-friendly, and then I could show up there and check myself in to give birth once labor was in progress. I've got Medicaid coverage; I should be covered for a hospital birth. And they wouldn't turn me away, surely. Maybe that would be the best course of action. My first hospital birth! Is that what's going to happen?!?
I still felt that sticking with the plan we had already been set on, of giving birth at the birth center, would be the simplest, easiest and smoothest option, with the least possibility of chaos, conflict and upheaval. I found myself hoping that my labor would start within the next couple days, just so that that conflict could be avoided. But there was another issue I was agonizing over.
to be continued...
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