Last night I had a great conversation with a nurse who works in a hospital with a low number of births.  She brought to light a problem that surprised me.  She said that probably 70% of the mothers who deliver at this hospital were induced!  She said it was very rare for a mother to show up in labor unless it was premature labor.  

What even surprised me more, were the reasons the mothers were being induced.  For their or their doctor's own convenience!  One mother had her in-laws visiting for two weeks so she was induced early so that the baby would be born while the in-laws were there.  Some mothers complained that they no longer wanted to be pregnant and were induced early!  Imagine that!  Who doesn't get to that point in their pregnancy???  Some doctors don't want to work delivering at night when they have patients to see in office during the day.  This nurse called it "social inductions" to differentiate it from medically necessary inductions. 

This leads me to think of all the problems inductions lead to for breastfeeding.  Think of the IV's influence, the additional intervention (c-sections, vacuum extraction, etc), the drugs for pain relief, etc ....   No wonder mothers are not getting off to a good start breastfeeding!

This completely surprised me because it was in stark contrast with the many mothers who choose midwifery and home birth in this state.  These moms may be choosing an even MORE safer alternative than they originally thought!

Does this seem to be a common trend throughout the US or world?  It seems that you can now order up your due date, doesn't matter what the baby says.

Terriann Shell,
Big Lake, Alaska

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