Was I supposed to be induced?

[IABUQueen]

So o keep hearing everywhere that you have the right to refuse induction if you wish.

In my experience I had my waters already broke. My labour had already started but was 4 contractions per 10 mins. I had Mconium,

I asked to give me time to labour naturally and was given 4 hours and told depend how good labour goes, and that I needed it to be regular. That’s how it reached 4 per 10 mins.. I thought I was doing pretty well.

When midwife measured me she said I wasn’t just 3/4 cm dilated. And she needed to put me on the drip. But she seemed to struggle to measure me and kept going at it for ages. Said she needed to ask her colleague as she was a new midwife..

Eventually I find out that her measurements weren’t right because when I was crowning few minutes before she wasn’t insisting I was just 5cm.

Anyway, at 3/4 cm, she told me she had to induce me. I don’t know what overcame me but I started crying and begging her not to like a child. I was sooo afraid and shaking and even vomited and I said pls give me a chance. She didn’t explain why but said she had to.

Then every 30 mins she would increase the dosage even though the contractions were going strong and I would cry and beg her not to.. fill the very end.

I delivered and was pushing while she was saying the induction wasn’t fast enough and I had many hours to go and said I wasn’t really pushing and I need to stop making a fuss..

I just want to know, was I supposed to be induced? If I begged her not to?

She didn’t explain to me any risk on me or the baby. It was just mconium in water.

My understanding is if there is meconium inside it's dangerous for the baby, a similar situation resulted in SIL having an emergency c section and DN still developed an infection. I was induced because my waters broke, they can't leave you more than about 24 hours after waters break due to the infection risk. I had a similar experience with induction, not much happened for ages then I went from 4 cm to 10cm and pushing in 40 minutes. It hurt like hell, but drip inductions do.

My waters broke at 3 am and I was induced at 11 am same day.

I thought mconium is common ?

Regardless of what should or shouldnt have happened the communication wasnt good enough, and that seems to me to be the crux of the issue.

Meconium is relatively common and normally ok, but when its not fine its horrific (ranging from sick baby in a specialist neonatal unit to brain damage/death).
Depending on a lot of things (how thick the meconium was, the baby's heart rate, how long your waters had been broken for, if there any signs you were unwell), the speedy induction and delivery while horrible for you may have saved your baby's life or prevented a neonatal admission.

I’m sorry, it sounds as if you didn’t properly understand the situation which may or may not have been down to the midwifery team. However it is absolutely necessary to manage the labour of a baby passing meconium.

To be completely correct it is called ‘acceleration of labour ‘ to start a drip after the waters have broken. There are clear rules that follow in terms of increasing the drip. Sometimes contractions feel strong but are ineffective so, with proper pain control the drip needs to be increased, especially if there is a sign of fetal compromise such as meconium.

Sometimes these labours aren’t the happiest of experience but if they result in a healthy Mum and baby perhaps that’s the best result of all?

@IABUQueen

Meconium in the waters is quite common but it is also a sign of fetal distress.

It doesn't sound like your midwife explained things to you properly or listened to your requests.

She should have explained that as there was meconium it would be important to get your baby out sooner rather than later.

When she examined you she should have explained that you needed the drip to strengthen the pains and make them more effective.

Once the drip is going it has to be increased every so often. If this is not done, the womb gets tired and you are at risk of bleeding a lot after the placenta is delivered.

There may have been other reasons which were not communicated to you, as to why your labour needed to be speeded up.

It was not fair of your midwife to have done anything to you without giving you a proper explanation and also taking your needs into consideration.

It doesn't sound like you were supported well by the midwife when you had your baby.

Hospitals offer a birth debriefing service. You can request this at any time. Ask to speak to the midwife in charge of the labour ward, or the consultant midwife. They will have your notes and will be able to explain exactly what happened and why everything was done. Hopefully this will help you to come to terms with it all, and you can also complain about your midwife. She clearly didn't deal with you in a sensitive way and that is not acceptable.

How are you feeling now? How old is the baby?

I forgot to add that I echo others, that even though there may have been medical reasons for what happened, the communication failed.

The other thing IABUQueen is that this wasn't what is really known as induction.

Your labour had already started. Your waters had broken and you must have been having some contractions because your cervix was 5 cm dilated.

So this is known as acceleration of labour, not induction.

Be that as it may you were still entitled to a full explanation and to have dignity. It doesn't sound like either of those things happened.

I'm sorry you had such an uncaring midwife.

OP - I've sent you a PM.

If your waters have broken and there's meconium in there then sometimes it can be an emergency situation where they need to get the baby out as quickly as possible. It is something that can kill the baby, and can also cause problems for the mum.

So I'd guess that's what was happening with you. So she probably did the right thing, medically.

However she obviously hasn't communicated that to you. Sounds like communication was very poor throughout the whole labour. That's not good enough. I'm sorry you went through that, labour is scary enough without medical staff being shit at communication, it makes the whole thing much worse than it needs to be for the mum.

It's augmentation of labour and it should not be carried out without informed consent. It doesn't matter what else is going on, informed consent is still necessary.

Meconium in waters is common and most of the time it's just a sign the baby is ready to poo but if there is fresh meconium it can be a sign, in some cases of fetal distress so the baby should be monitored closely. Obviously your baby wasn't in distress otherwise they would be seeking your consent for a C-section. The longer the baby is around the meconium the greater the chance of infection but that does not negate the need for informed consent. Did they not offer you an epidural?

Can I ask what was the problem with you being induced?

Meconium can be inhaled by the baby, causing irritation in the lungs and sometimes, difficulty inflating them. It can also lead to aspirate pneumonia and in rare cases, death.

If there was meconium present when your waters broke, the midwife has to intervene and monitor your baby.
If your baby showed signs of distress, they need to advance the labour and ensure a safe delivery.
Midwives don't want to induce people for the sake of it. They do however want the beat possible outcome for both mother and child.

*best.

Definitely not beat

Meconium can be fatal to a baby. You should have been fully informed and able to give full consent. However...speaking to many women who have given birth, their memories are completely different to birth notes or the full scenario. I’m not saying midwives are always correct in their assessment or recording of situations, but due to the context, a woman in labours memory isn’t always complete/correct xx

Interesting - where I live (not U.K. anymore), meconium and slow progression almost always lead to EMCS.

I went from 4cm to 8/9cm in a matter of ten or fifteen minutes - had to call back the doctor who'd just examined me and left when I said I felt like pushing and the nurse checked.

I had meconium in my waters and was told if my labour didn't progress on its own they'd have to induce me to help it along as meconium can be a sign that baby is stressed. Luckily it progressed and she was born less than 4 hours later

I had meconium and it resulted in to newborn not breathing and then being taken to intensive care and then special care. He's absolutely fine now and came out pretty quickly but it was awful at the time.