
For most expectant mothers, labour begins spontaneously, at about 40 weeks into the pregnancy.Induction of labour occurs when medications such as prostaglandin and oxytocin are used when a woman is past her due date to ripen the cervix and get the uterus contracting.
Says Dr. Andre Lalonde, “The message to doctors, nurses and midwives is, be patient and do not consider inductions before the end of the 41st week,” said Lalonde. “If you wait that extra week to 10 days, you will find that most women — a large percentage — will go into spontaneous labour.” He says “the number one risk” of induction is that it leads to earlier decisions about a C-section, which now stand at an all-time high in Canada. Nearly 28 per cent of babies were born surgically in Canada in 2007-08, according to a national report released last week. That’s up from five per cent in 1969.
Induction can lead to longer, more painful labour and continuous electronic monitoring of the baby’s heart rate, which itself increases the risk of C-sections, because it generates “a lot of information. In fact, too much information,” says Dr. William Ehman, a family doctor in Nanaimo, B.C. who will be leading a session on normal birth at this week’s meeting of pregnancy doctors and gynecologists. “So you are trying to sort out the important things versus what’s not important.”Research shows that, in healthy pregnancies, checking the baby’s heart rate after contractions by listening, or using a hand-held device, reduces the risk of interventions.
3 comments:
deBeauxOs, I love you like a sibling, but please, if you MUST post SUZANNE's name you should at least include an appropriate descriptive: Terrorist enabler and supporter.
Let's give Echelon something to munch on.
Dave, you are being too polite with SUZANNE....
Abortion-criminalizing, zygote zealots are the ones who obsess about "the fetus" - and nothing but "the fetus".
You could add dictating how women should feel also... I've never seen a group that has so little respect for others.
Wingnut pledge : Do you promise to tell about the fetus, the whole fetus, and nothing but the fetus...
Post a Comment