"surprisingly, each fetus determines when it wants to be born. a small specific area of the brain sets in motion a series of events that will lead to the beginning of labor."
-klaus & klaus.
i attended a birth yesterday that was full of reminders for me as a doula. my client's water broke early in the morning. late morning she went to see the midwives at the hospital for antibiotics because she was group b strep+. they suggested considering induction and insinuated that she probably would not start contractions on her own. she decided to leave the hospital after the antibiotics were through in order to try some at-home methods of induction. castor oil, homeopathy, acupuncture, etc. - hours went by, and still no contractions. the midwives had encouraged her to wait 12 hours at the most before induction. my client decided to return to the hospital only when her second round of antibiotics was needed - 15 hours after her bag of waters broke! and here's the beauty of it - her contractions began one hour before she went back in. she ended up having a lovely birth. from the time her contractions began, her labor lasted only 7 hours. this was her first baby. i cannot assume what her labor would have looked like had she been induced, but it would have been an unnecessary intervention - and the contractions from the induction would have been more difficult than the ones her body was producing naturally, making it harder for her to have the birth experience she was hoping for.
i was really proud of my client for trusting her body enough to leave the hospital in order to pursue home induction. she wasn't willing to risk infection, but she felt that she needed to at least try to let her body do its own thing. and it worked. i spoke to her about an hour before her contractions began, and at that time, i began preparing myself for an induced labor. i was thrilled when i found out her labor started on its own and was reminded of the natural beauty of the workings of our bodies.
now it is time to educate others to trust their bodies the way my client did - to trust without being reckless.
