I met have many women who want to be induced., some as early as 36 weeks. These are women who are experiencing discomfort, pain, partner going away, support person available at this time, sick of being pregnant, have an important event coming up [other child's bv'day, Xmas] Lots of not very good reasons. You can explain until you are blue in the face, paint the worse scenes  try and delay them. They can be very determined.  I had one women go to another town for induction when her doctor refused. It is not always the doctors or MW's fault. Some women are very determined and will go to all sorts of lengths to get an iol or c/s. Women will present several times, they will ring and are known to try and induce labour themselves.
as a mid student we had an antenatal in patient attempt her own arm.  I was told that active labour management was introduced because Dublin hospital had so many bookings that they had to manage the amount of time each women spent in the delivery room, speed things up.     Maureen
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]On Behalf Of Janet Fraser
Sent: Wednesday, 1 February 2006 1:26 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [ozmidwifery] Resounding failure of "active labour management"

Rachel,
I only hear this from health professionals. I don't hear it from women, not even the most mainstream hospy birthing mamas with whom I deal. It's a very small percentage of women who embrace this technology, and an even smaller number who knowingly embrace it. If you read mainstream birth stories they usually start with "My baby was 10 days overdue so my hospital/surgeon said I had to be induced." The women are generally scared, although normal physiological birth scares them too, but have no idea of the massive risks involved. When it all goes pearshaped, as it so often does, the hospital/surgeon and those around them tell the woman she is defective and can't birth "properly". It sometimes leads to ERC solely for fear as women are so shocked by the assault of active management that they seek to control the process in future by choosing surgery without the horror of labour under these circumstances. Of course, the profiting surgeon is only too happy to oblige.
 
Apart from women transferred from BCs to labour wards, the most traumatised women I see are those who have had active management foisted on them by hospital policies and the belief that you can't say no. Not that saying no helps women in most hospitals anyway, you only need to read those same birth stories to hear that also. Whatever MWs in hospitals are being asked about induction and active management, women are really not understanding what it is and I almost never hear of a woman who *wants* to be induced, they just don't know they don't have to be. Most women now believe that without interventions like induction and ARM that babies won't come and that women don't know how to go into labour.
 
Tragic but something I see all the time. Try some mainstream birth forums to read the same story over and over and over again.
http://www.bubhub.com.au/community/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=95
http://members.essentialbaby.com.au/index.php?s=0414c493308393a14870b1d37c5c09ff&showforum=49
J

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