Induction is not a decision made in a vacuum. Induction has a lot of implications, good bad and indifferent, but it changes things.
Choosing induction means you will give birth in a hospital. That means you need to choose a hospital, preferably be familiar with that hospital, travel to that hospital, be admitted to that hospital sometimes for several days and nights. It’s a big departure from normal life. You’ll need to get some supplies, pack a bag for a hospital stay, prepare for the unknown. You may or may not be allowed visitors. You may or may not be allowed the support of a partner. It might be the first time you’ve ever been in hospital. You don’t know how long you’ll stay, who will be there overhearing your personal health information, how many people you’ll share a room with. You won’t have control over your movements, it can be difficult to get enough sleep, you compromise your privacy, it’s a very vulnerable time. Your baby will have the hospitals address on its birth certificate. They’ll drive past the hospital in thirty years and say ‘that’s where I was born’ In future years your great great great great grandchildren will research their family tree and see this hospitals information.
Consenting to induction means consenting to intimate medical procedures and internal examinations. You may or may not get privacy for these. You likely won’t get much say in who performs these or how it feels to you. You are accepting needles and cannulas, which can be a significant issue to many. You are accepting induction drugs, which can have side effects and complications like any other, without reading the small print. Many women will scan the information leaflet on something to ease a stuffy nose when pregnant in case the drug affects the baby but induction requires you to accept medicines that act on the uterus. Of course they can be life saving medicines, but it’s not unreasonable to ask for the small print.
Induction means letting go of the popular/romantic trope of telling your partner you’re in labour, letting go of the idea of a gradual build up, of dashing to call the midwife or drive to hospital, letting go of the idea of how you thought it might be, how it might go. You let go of the idea of the baby coming when they are ready, choosing their own birthday,. The sweepstake they are doing at work on birthdate suddenly narrows and competition switches to birthweight.
It turns labour from something nebulous that might happen in the future, but can be put to the back of your mind, into something imminent, something marked on the calendar, something real, and that’s scary. For many it’s an adjustment, a swift change to plans, a sudden need to begin maternity leave, an abrupt end to a pregnancy when they thought they had more time, more space. Some women will not be able to keep their baby after birth and need to put back that moment for as long as possible. Some know their baby will be born with difficulties. Some have had previous losses and feel safe and connected in pregnancy, some have had severe previous birth trauma, some are on their seventh baby to an abusive or shit partner who won’t look after the others properly if she has to stay in hospital.
I could go on and on with further implications when the idea of induction is raised. There are endless scenarios which might lead a woman to question the need for or timing of induction, especially a routine one not for urgent medical reasons. Her reasons are 100% up to her, just as yours are up to you.