Induction/syntocinon and hypnobirthing/natural birth - advice please

[MtnBikeChick]

I am intending/hoping to have a natural birth at a midwife led unit (in a hospital) and to have tens/water/entinox only. I have also been practicing hypnobirthing relaxation and breathing for a couple of months now and intend to put this into practice. However I have recently heard a friend's birth story and she had syntocinon as her contractions didn't progress enough. I am now really worried about having to be induced as I have been told that it would be a bit mad not to have an epidural if you have to be induced/have syntocinon and now I am horribly confused! If I go overdue and need to be induced will I have to have syntocinon and will this mean an end to my hypnobirthing/natural birthing plans? Does anyone have any experience of this?
Thanks so much, am a but worried

I had syntocinon as part of my induction because my induction had been so slow. I might be talking nonsense, but I thought if they break your waters, they will start syntocinon if you haven't progressed after a certain time (because of the higher infection risk once your waters have gone). You don't have to have an epidural if you have syntocinon, although I have heard that labour is more intense with syntocinon running (I can't say, as i only had syntocinon induced labour with an epidural (my choice)), but they don't put an epidural up as a matter of course.

The other thing is that when syntocinon is going, you are attached to an iv drip, so your movement will be more limited than a totally natural birth. They also monitor the baby continuously and check your blood pressure more regularly than if you didn't have it.

But, there should be no reason why you can't try using hypnobirthing / tens / entenox as pain relief. I'm not sure about water though (although they can't theoretically stop you doing anything, I imagine it would be near impossible to relax in the water, with an IV drip attached, though standing in the shower, with someone letting warm water run on your back would be very possible).

Definitely write a birth plan - because at least then the midwives would know what you did want and try to accomodate your wishes / help you adapt them if you did need syntocinon.

Hi
I am very interested in seeing the replies you get as I had a "Plan A" just like yours but am now 8 days overdue and looking at a possible induction this week if things do not start naturally. My priority is obviously to have a safe delivery of a healthy baby, but I would love to avoid an instrumental delivery if possible and am worried that having a epidural will lead me down that road.

However, if I am on continuous monitoring my other pain relief options (moving about, massage, water etc) will be limited and I am not superwoman so fully accept I may want an epiduaral!!

Hope I get going and can have the birthing centre after all- sorry not to offer anything helpful but just to let you know you are not alone

you do not have to be induced if you go overdue. the length of a normal human pg is 37 - 42 weeks so overdue starts after 42 weeks. In the UK they want to get you on the delivery conveyor belt at 40 weeks and off it then or shortly after.

FWIW, with dd2 I went to 41 wks by my calculation and 40+10 by theirs. It was an awesome home birth in water with no pain relief except shouting through the contractions. Baby was so fast (>2hrs) we barely made it into the pool.

I also planned hypnobirthing and natural birth but agreed to be induced as DS went beyond 42 weeks, stubborn little so-and-so that he is! They tend to try and start induction with pessaries first and these do often work - kickstarting the usual process as it were.

For me, I did end up having syntocinon and I did end up having an epidural (also because DS was back to back, ow ow ow.) However hypnobirthing techniques were still very useful, as were TENS initially and gas and air throughout. They wouldn't let me use the pool though they did let me use the showers, which helped.

Try not to worry too much about something that may not even happen. Like enzed says, write a birth plan and make your birth partner aware of what you do and don't want. But birth is a funny old game and it doesn't always go the way you want/expect! It's worth it though (she says, through a hail of bricks being thrown at her by a hungry toddler... )

Thanks everyone - I don't want to even consider induction until 42 weeks and even then, would prefer to go in and be checked each day rather than be induced - the baby will come when it is ready, in my view - but obviously the health of the baby is my primary concern so would never want to do anything to affect that.

Hi, I had augmentation with synotocin as my labour was stop & start for 48hrs with hardly any dilation, altho it had started naturally 10days after due date. I had been using tens & continued to do so but it didn't touch the pain. Babe was also posterior. I supposedly had gas but the midwive didn't bother to see if I was using it correctly & I ended up just using it to bite on (sore jaws afterwards!). I had used a hypnotherapy cd mainly for relaxation during pregnancy & thought it may come in handy for labour but I personally experienced the pain to be too much & also with the synotocin the contractions were coming so quickly I had no time to focus on anything. This may not be the case if maybe a lower dose is used or if it is used only at first to induce labour & then allowed to wear off.
I requested an epidural but the augmented labour sped up too fast for one to be organised (hmm..) It was very painful & the only thing that kept me going was the fact I knew it was finite & that at least I was experiencing a natural birth which personally meant a lot to me (esp as a c-section had been fairly likely for various reasons). So basically I would definitely recommend an epidural with any kind of synotocin administration, or at least be prepared you might want it & accept it doesn't mean you are a failure or anything negative like that. The synotocin made me go from about 2cm to fully dilated in 2.5hrs so no wonder it was painful

MtnBikechick what you described is called 'expectant management' in midwifery. as long as your baby is happy inside there is no need to rush him out. you may also like to research reflexology and acupuncture as 2 non invasive ways to bring on labour.

I also did natal hypnotherapy which is similar to hypnobirthing and I think it helped me with labour. though in my case, 30 minutes after my first contraction, they were rolling into each other already and there was little time to do anything except to relax and get on with labouring. Shouting I found very effective as well as lying over my birthing ball on my knees where I fell asleep during transition.

It sounds like you have already done a lot of self education with is empowering.

Hi there, have you tried using Clary Sage to bring the labour on so that you can hopefully avoid being induced? My sis-in-law is a doula and told me about it, I used for both mine from 38 weeks-ish and worked both times (1st was 3 days after DD, 2nd was 7 days before DD) - its an oil you can get from health food shops and just put a few drops in the bath or on a tissue and sniff, also v.good to sniff if labour stalls - which is much less likely if you are doing hypnobirthing. I did hypnobirthing and it worked really well. All the best! PS One of the best bits of advice in the hypnobirthing book is not to worry about friend's birth horror stories!!

hi there

i did pregnancy yoga and learnt some amazing breathing techniques. you will still find them useful. trust me! i had an induction with syntocynon and epidural becuase i agree that such inductions w/o epidurals are very tough. the contractions are very strong. and the reason i know that is because my epidural DIDN'T WORK

it kind of worked at first and then stopped working for three very long hours, and then worked again and then stopped again for three hours in which i was pushing (after which i delivered). my breathing is what got me through it all.

so i would go with the epidural but know that you have the advantage that many women don't that you can cope if the epidural doesn't work (as it doesn't for some people)

i would say though that i know nothing about higher rates of instrumental deliveries with epidurals, ive heard of it but not sure of the arguments and the evidence so can't comment on how that should influence your decision.

I was induced with Syntocynon but I didn't have an epidural and only gas and air. I had planned a natural birth and I did use lots of breathing techniques and what I now know are hypnobirthing techniques and found them very helpful.

I wasn't able to move around a great deal because of the drip/monitoring, but I was on a birthing ball and had a brilliant midwife who was prepared to move around me.

It was ok. DD was healthy and there were no interventions.

Basically I think that you shouldn't necessarily opt for an epidural just beacuse you are put on the drip (if you hadn't planned one anyway) but be open to having one if you feel you need it. You don't need to suffer to prove yourself (I say this because I think that's what I was doing, a bit, and I was lucky that the combination of lovely midwife and not too hideously painful reaction to the drip made it OK).

brilliant post Starlight.

just to add if you do get induced and opt for an epidural, your hypnobirthing will still be very useful because they woudn't insert it until you were in established labour so the early contractions could be managed in that way. also the tens machine useful for this. this is what i did. and also the tens machine can be used for post birth pains too (so long as you don't, hopefully, end up having an EMCS)

Don't worry. To be honest, although it is good to have a 'plan' for the birth, you do need to allow it to be a bit flexible. I did hypnobirthing and had tens/pool/gas and air, (and massage from a doula and my DH)and then had syntocin after around 15 hours of labour to speed things up. Didn't want an epidural, wasn't offered one, therefore didn't have one, managed fine. Hypnobirthing definitely helped at all stages, so even if you do have any form of 'medication/intervention' you will still get some benefits from the relaxation and breathing techniques.

Please don't let yourself be scared by other people's birth stories. Do your research so you can make informed decisions, but as birthday approaches, stick your fingers in your ears and go "la la la". OK well maybe not, but it's really not going to help your positive frame of mind (or encourage your positive outcome).

You don't "have" to have any medical intervention, it is your choice to make, but clearly with that choice you need to be responsible for understanding what you are deciding on.

My birth plan says no syntocinon unless with-holding would be harmful to mother or baby. That is to say that I will not be induced if my waters break (I am happy to monitor for signs of infection) or if I am less than 43 weeks (will choose monitoring, the risk to baby goes up after 43 weeks, not 42) and "failure to progress" will be taken with a pinch of salt as I am pretty sure my baby hasn't read our local hospital's policy on how long labour should last. I would however accept it if the obstetrician could give me a convincing explanation that in my particular case (not hospital policy "just in case") it was necessary for a healthy outcome.

Of course this is my decision and I wouldn't "encourage" anyone else to do the same without doing their homework first. If you go against policy, you need to know why, and what the benefits and risks are.

Active birth and being relaxed should help reduce the risk that your labour will slow down. Any safe/approved outside help in the form of reflexology, yoga, aromatherapy, raspberry leaf tea, acupuncture or curry can't really go amiss either.

Just to contradict an earlier assumption not all epidurals result in instrumental delivery. My first DD was delivered by forceps without an epidural, it had been a very long labour and i missed 2 nights sleep so was very tired. My subsequent 3 deliveries were all induced with the drip and i had an epidural for each.DC2,3 and 4 i pushed out without the need for any further intervention.For DD2's delivery i was told when to push as i couldn't feel much however i felt the urge to push for my last 2 babies.
Good Luck

Thanks everyone for very helpful advice and thoughts.