Does anyone go into Labour naturally anymore?

[hellosunshineagainx]

Ok tell me if aibu. But I am 31 so lots of friends and family having first babies, out of the ten the past three years only ONE has gone into Labour naturally. Is this normal or are healthcare providers too quick to induce?

I had a failed induction leading to a cascade of intervention including a emergency C-section where I haemorrhaged and then had an infection.

We were both in hospital over a week. I was only induced as I was overdue but my cervix was so unfavourable they couldn't even do a sweep so I perhaps am quite biased.

I did with my 2nd of 2!

My 1st was born with a rare syndrome and needed to be bombed out!

Spontaneous with DS1 at 40wks, 2 years later was under loads of pressure to agree to induction for DS2 from 39 weeks onwards but refused (no medical reason for it), spontaneous at 41+1 (10 and a half years ago).
Was shocked by the casual decision that I would be booked in for induction at 37 weeks for DS3 2 yeaes ago - yes I was older this time and pita blood pressure but never any signs of pre-eclampsia, refused induction as they consultant couldn't give me any medical reason to have one. Was put under a lot of pressure, glad it was my third so I felt more confident to question it.. I contacted the Head of midwifery at the hospital and they were great and really supportive. Spontaneous at 41 weeks - very quick deliveries with DS2 and DS3, 10lb and 9lb and text book deliveries with only a couple of stitches. Poor DSis was low risk, induced for the sake of it as seems the routine these days, ended up with forceps, haemorrhage and a week in hospital - really traumatic and quite possibly completely unnecessary if they'd just let her go beyond 40+1.

Both of mine came naturally, both were early though.

Eldest was at 36 weeks and youngest at 39 weeks, I’d actually gone in to be induced with my youngest due to concerns arising from my scans but when they examined me they told me I was in labour and my cervix was fully dilated and I’d probably give birth through the night!

@phoenixrosehere

With the second at 40+4

Coerced into an induction I didn’t want with the first, it failed amazingly, treated poorly, emcs,. Then reported it to be told it was unnecessary and not medically needed in the first place with no explanation as to why nor an apology. There was no way in he**I was going to allow them to suggest that again or dictate anything without evidence like they did with my first.

This is exactly how I feel

@9nine

My youngest is nearly 5 so not that recent, but I’ve got 9 children and all 9 were spontaneous deliveries, midwives were always quite shocked that I’d never been induced. All were before due date, 5 a month early, 4 around a week early.

To be fair I am one of six kids, two sets of twins, all natural births. I'm not my mother's daughter 😂 but that was the 80s and 90s inductions and csections werent as common

I was 40+2and I asked to be induced a week earlier that they normally leave it. I had a chat with the consultant who respected my wishes. Low risk pregnancy (I was early 20s) and low risk factors, other than significant slowed growth towards end of pregnancy. It was my choice to be induced. I had a complicated birth but my child’s head was the size of Saturn, so not that surprising. I regret nothing, I was too scared of having a still birth after the miscarriage I’d had. You can’t really determine that I had complications due to being induced, or whether I’d have had complications naturally. Do the statistics differentiate?

Yes all 4. Oldest 8. Youngest 2

Ok so looking at stats

As recently as 2010 21% of births were inductions, in 20/21 it sat at 34%!

Csections in 2010 were 14% and are now 18%

Spontaneous has gone down from 67% of all births to just 47%, so more than 50% of births are now csections or inductions!

I did with the first, second I was induced.
I was worried about the induction due to all the horror stories you hear, but actually it was completely fine.

Do you only know people how have had one baby? You're more likely to go overdue with your first. I thought that was common knowledge.

Yes more people are getting induced and having csections. But I'd also like to see mortality figures along with those figures. Are mother and baby mortality rates the same or improved?

PS I had two csections. Much preferable to the alternative I faced with DS1 TBH.

@hellosunshineagainx

Ok tell me if aibu. But I am 31 so lots of friends and family having first babies, out of the ten the past three years only ONE has gone into Labour naturally. Is this normal or are healthcare providers too quick to induce?

I had a failed induction leading to a cascade of intervention including a emergency C-section where I haemorrhaged and then had an infection.

We were both in hospital over a week. I was only induced as I was overdue but my cervix was so unfavourable they couldn't even do a sweep so I perhaps am quite biased.

It sure is less common.

I was in a conversation recently with extended family and it came up who had had c-sections. There was only one person out of about six who hadn't. I had a similar experience some years ago i a GPs waiting room.

That should be kind of shocking, they know excessive section rates endanger mums and babies. And inductions tend to lead to sections.

@hellosunshineagainx

Ok so looking at stats

As recently as 2010 21% of births were inductions, in 20/21 it sat at 34%!

Csections in 2010 were 14% and are now 18%

Spontaneous has gone down from 67% of all births to just 47%, so more than 50% of births are now csections or inductions!

So usually the rule of thumb is smaller hospitals should have a c-section rate of about 10%, whereas larger regional ones that handle more complex cases about 15%. When you go much beyond that you start to do more harm than good. SO those numbers aren't great but not as bad as they could be.

I'm in Canada and the regional hospital near me where I had three of my kids has a section rate of 27%!

This is really interesting. There is a target to reduce still births by half by 2025. Sort of on target, but with more to do. It feels as though this target, although important, is not holistically also looking at women's experiences.

The most important thing is is to get baby here safely, but women need to be given an informed choice. The choice being a genuine one.

I did, 2 days overdue.

That is the statistic though. I thought no one ent into labour naturally. I did twice, my waters broke, plug came out. The book what to expect (or google) said only 1 out of 10 have that.

I did but I was only a few days overdue, they had started conversations about induction i think they would have been considering it at just a week over. I thought 2 weeks over was generally considered ok I think they do sometimes rush to induce

They can't wait to start doing sweeps which do very little for most women and hurt like hell. They wanted to induce me at ten days overdue but I didn't want to risk the cascade of interventions that ensues. At 12 days overdue I started labour naturally and had a natural water birth.

My friend who is a chiropractor and generally reads up a lot on this stuff told me that individual women have slightly different lengths of pregnancy (same as they have different period lengths) while the NHS is just working on an average. I'd advise anyone in that situation during a normal pregnancy without complications to monitor very regularly but try to wait until the two week mark if everything looks ok and let nature take its course. Not because I am some kind of earth mother type, but because it reduces the medical risk in terms of emergency caesarian etc.

The reverse here. Out of me and the 5 women I know who’ve had children recently I’m the only one who has had an induction. They’ve all had 1-2 children and spontaneous births. I’ve had 3 but only 1 spontaneous birth. 1 induction at 40 weeks for pre-eclampsia and 1 at 13 days over as DS didn’t want to budge.

Yes, I did, twice.

I went in to labour naturally with all four of my babies. Inductions we’re booked but never needed.
41 + 0
39 + 2
40 + 1
40 + 6

My best friend recently had a baby. She had a failed induction too and was in hospital for just under a week before she ended up having an emergency c-section.

*were

Yes. I went into labour naturally with my first two at 6 days overdue and 2 days overdue. My third was induced at 10 days overdue.

36% were induced during Dec 2021 at my local maternity unit - there's no mention of risk factor/ by due date etc.

Either way, this seems to be the going rate each month and it seems really high?

I'm a first time mum, 38+2 and have been pressured since the 36 week mark into having an induction from 37 weeks due to baby measuring over 97th percentile on scans PANICS albeit I've been advised the scans are not necessarily that accurate. I've held off so far as I'm not overly keen on an induction, but I'm due to have a membrane sweep on Monday (38+4) and they've decided to book me in for induction at 39+4 weeks.

Of ALL (not just induced) births during Dec 2021 at same unit the rough percentages were:
60% - unassisted vaginal birth
17% - elective cesarean
10% - emergency cesarean
10% - forceps
3% - ventouse