Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Little known facts about Pitocin and induction

"Pitocin is the most abused drug in the world today." ~Roberto Caldreyo-Barcia, MD, former president of the International Federation of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

• Pitocin is not approved by the FDA for elective (patient or provider convenience) inductions or stimulation of labor (moving things along).

• Pitocin generally produces contractions that are much longer, more intense, and more painful than normal contractions....

Read the rest of this post over at my new website!

11 comments:

Brooke said...

Given the facts that you show here... why would anyone in the world want to use Pitocin???

Again, thank you for being a light for me, Lani. :) Thank you for sharing your knowledge and those of others.

The Mommy said...

I'm sure I've read this post of yours before cause I quote it all the time. HEHEHE Now I can send people to the right place. :) out of curiosity where did you get this information?

Lani said...

It's basically just a compilation of info from a whole slew of sources. I should have included all the references... sorry! I could track them all down, but it's basically just info you could find all over the place if you do some pitocin research.

Neoma said...

While I don't advocate the over-use of Pitocin and I can testify that it makes for a very difficult labor, I would like to offer a little hope to anyone who finds herself receiving Pitocin - it is still possible to have an otherwise natural childbirth. You don't have to get an epidural just because you end up with complications that result in induction. I had to be induced at 37 weeks because I had high blood pressure. It took 12 hours of IV Pitocin to get me into labor and after the contractions started I spent 12 more hours laboring on my side to keep my blood pressure down (while still receiving Pitocin). With the help of a wonderful husband and an incredibly merciful Heavenly Father, I experienced the whole labor and birth without an epidural. It was a difficult and beautiful experience.

Lani said...

Neoma, Thanks so much for sharing your experience! I am always excited and in awe when I hear about women who are able to give birth unmedicated while on Pit. You're an inspiration. :-)

Morgan said...

If I could do things over with my first baby, I would never, ever, ever have done the Pitocin. It was miserable!!! I would have rather gone straight into having a c-section than trying to do Pitocin without an epidural for 7+ hours.

Kelli said...

Another thing many women dont know is that many nurses are ordered to " 'Pit' her to distress". In other words, turn up her Pit drip every few minutes until the baby crashers into distress so they can start a c-section and be done with her. Sometimes just to force her to take an epidural, but that often causes the fetal distress needed to demand a c-section for her.

Also there has been a pretty convincing link between Pit and autism, but also epidurals. A study could only show that in a very large group of homebirthers who of course recieved no drug (women given pit injections for hemmorage were ruled out) there were no cases of Autism in those children comapared to an alarmingly high number of the hospital born children of the same time frame. This of course in nothing conclusive but it begs for people to consider that labor drugs are NOT tested on the fetus/child but ONLY the mother and there are consequences to these unnecessay druggings. We need to be our own advocates and educators because Maternity "Care"
has changed "INFORMED Consent" to "CONSENT & DONT ASK".

Lastly true Informed Consent consists of B.R.A.N.D. Benefits Risks Assesment Negotiation & Decision. Unfortunately we cant blindly trust to be told the truth. Have you ever been told the epidural can cause full body and/or premantent/semi-permanent paralysis? I doubt it. I've met two women, one whose right side of her face was paralyzed they thought premantently but it imporoved mostly around 11months pp. The other paralyzed up to her eyes while pushing therefore her heart stoped and it took 10days after birth before the epi drugs began to wear and she slowly regained some movement. Then she had to be restrained because the headaches it caused were so painful she uncontrollably beat her head on the walls.

Rare yes. But we deserve to know this IS A RISK. It is perfectly ok if you accept these risk IF and ONLY IF you truely know the RISKS and not JUST the POSSIBLE benefits. My friends mom was c-sectioned without any pain meds because they didn't believe her that and epidural wouldn't work...but it was misplaced so she had nothing and went into shock from the surgery pain. Another womens epi catheter fell out of her spine but luckily by the time they got halfway through stapeling her back up they finally believed her and gassed her. My friends mom was not so lucky.

Labor drugs CAN work but they are nowhere near perfect or safe and ceertainly are not needed by moist moms. Protect yourself with knowledge, no one can do it for you.

G said...

I translated the chinese comment above thinking it to be from a mother but it is spam.

My own first labor was an uninformed induction. It was implied I was going to have a non stress test when in fact we were being induced. After an awful induction experience I received an unwanted c-section. I didn't get to be with my family for 2 hours. I had to fend off more unwanted drugs while alone. They then tried to keep my daughter due to some very slight jaundice...etc. etc. I asked the Dr. for help for the depression after wards...he scheduled me for a pap in six months...that was all...there were hard consequences for my family. It took two years of emotional recovery...Only by God's grace did our marriage survive.

We have since had three other children. By the grace of God they have been born at home the first with a midwife the next two attended by my spouse, children and God. I admire anyone who manages to give birth in a hospital setting. The very idea that anyone can labor successful with the medical model stacked against them amazes me.

In spite of our successful vaginal births I still hear implications of how, because we had that initial unwarranted c-section, we should expect that our next child could die without medical experts to save us from uterine rupture if we attempt vaginal birth.

You are not broken just because another person decides their ideas can fix you.

Women are well designed. Put your trust in God who loves you, who designed you with tender care and successful birth experiences in mind.

MotherToMany said...

I didn't read the other responses, but wanted to add, that if a mother is given pitocin for repeat births, if she ever tries to go for a natural birth she may have a more difficult time producing the right amount of oxytocin. It will take her body longer to go into labor as well, because when the body naturally produces hormones it remembers how much was used and needed. Some say it's the reason why first births tend to be longer than subsequent births, as the body learns to recognize the right amount of hormones needed to birth.

It's not true in all cases, but it is for many, and it's why some mom's may find that they end up going past their due date when they try to home birth after several hospital births.

It's also the reason why many mom's who've breast fed before, find that their bodies regulate faster with subsequent babies as well. I know with mine, after each baby I've leaked less and less during pregnancy and during breast feeding.

Kayla said...

Thank you Kelly for your information.

MothertoMany: I have heard the same about med-free birth after several pit-induced births. I can say that I had a very hard time getting labor started with my 4th at home after I had 3 augmented births (and my water had broken). We did tons of walking, stretching, accupressure, etc. The contractions were sporadic and weak. Eventually, things became more productive though, and all was okay! I'm sure I'd have just been pit-ted in the hospital.

Paloma said...

When I had my baby almost 3 years ago, my contractions were irregular during the whole labor, so they tried to help them with pitocin...needless to say after a few minutes with it they turned the pitocin off cause they figured my contractions were already really bad by themselves, so I never got to experience the "evil pitocin" as we used to called it in my circle of friends