Best Labor Induction Tips You Want to Know Before You Go
hey there i want you to have the best induction
possible and so i've got some tips i've learned from experience as a doula supporting many people
through an induction and i want to share just some ways to prepare so that you can have the best
induction possible first and foremost mindset like preparing your mind for the induction and setting
the expectations of what it's going to look like is really going to help you when you're in it and
what i like to compare this to is say you have a friend that's going to go for a run and your
friend says hey you want to run with me usually you're gonna ask well how long are we running
and where are we going tell me about the course so i want you to know what the expectation is for
the length of time and what it's going to look like and i think that's missing often from our
health care providers we don't always hear sort of the reality of what an induction looks like and
even though even if the reality isn't something we like i think it's better that we know what to
expect right so inductions can be really long it's just the reality that inductions often have people
um ending up spending one or two extra nights in the hospital than if you go into labor on your own
so knowing that you're going to be in there a long time then i think it's set yourself up for more
success having that expectation related to that make sure that your family your friends your mom
knows that it's going to be long too so many times i have seen people um in labor or having an
induction where their friends and family on the outside of the hospital you know at home
waiting for the news can get really anxious because they don't realize that it's a long
process and they weren't given that heads up and then they just start like blowing up your
phone and asking like what's going on why is there no change is everything okay and it can be a
little bit maddening if you are on the other side of those text messages and it can get a little
bit stressful knowing that you have a lot of people that are waiting that are anxious for news
and maybe it's just going slow which is normal but setting family friends and everybody on the
outside up with that expectation it's such a good idea also if you have like someone taking care of
your pets give them the heads up that it's going to be longer you know anybody who is counting on
you to have a baby um within you know 24 hours 36 hours make sure they know that it might be
longer than that and if for some reason labor goes faster i remember supporting a couple during
induction and everything leading up we made sure that they knew that it's probably going to be long
it's probably going to be slow sure enough her body picked up and she had the baby fairly quickly
for an induction and she was totally shocked very surprised that it went so fast and she was
able to call her family and say hey turns out it was faster than i thought of course they weren't
disappointed that it was faster they were excited so set up your own mind for that marathon ahead
of you and set up your family and friends minds so that they're ready too so if you know you have
a marathon on your calendar in a couple days what are you gonna do in the nights leading up to
the marathon you're gonna take care of yourself you're going to go to bed early you're going to
have good dinners you're going to be hydrated you know there's a physical activity that's
going to require a lot out of you and a couple days and so you're going to prepare so i really
recommend that you do that too don't have those late nights trying to fit everything in or get all
of your to-do list done it's really more important to take care of yourself and get that energy
stored up be rested so that you'll be at your best for induction the next thing we gotta cover
is hospital time have you heard about hospital time that's what doulas and childbirth educators
refer to the way the time moves in the hospital and it can feel like forever so i'm gonna give a
super real example first say your nurse says oh your doctor is coming by at 9 00 a.m to check your
cervix and make a plan for the day great so you're stuck in this hospital room and of course you're
looking forward to that 9 a.m check on check by your doctor well 9 a.m comes and goes 10 a.m 11
12 you don't see your doctor until 12 45 well it's not because they were like not doing their
job they were probably called out to another birth or a surgery or a situation
that needed them immediately and so you unfortunately are the recipient of a
slower hospital time check by the doctor this happens a lot so let's just set up our
minds something that you can do to prepare as you're heading into induction is just
remember flexibility it's really key here and it can really test your patience but i'm letting
you know you're finding out now you're not going to find out in the hospital and when your doctor
shows up two hours passed when you think they're going to you know about hospital time because you
have been given this little nugget that all doulas understand as hospital time also just it doesn't
always work where it's slower sometimes it's faster too so don't send your partner out to
get lunch at 11 30 if the doctor's supposed to be here at noon because they very well
may come at 11 30.
So flexibility is key um it goes right along with the mindset that
it's going to take a long time you can feel this is sort of a pattern that's developing right
the other thing to have flexibility about is a change of plans so it is fairly common that
someone's date and time for their induction might have to be moved so it's really hard to plan
schedules and set up induction times at hospitals when they don't really know what's going to happen
on any given day there might be a lot of people that go into labor spontaneously and they might
not have room for you during your induction time and while this is can be that is incredibly
frustrating just be aware that it can happen so having some flexibility understanding that
plans may change also plans for how the process is going to take place might change too your
doctor might think that they need to start with the thinning process on your cervix and then they
might change and say oh your cervix is already thinned let's start with pitocin and start opening
your cervix so just like a spontaneous labor things may change along the way i think sometimes
we get a little bit fooled into believing that because our the start of labor is being controlled
that we're able to kind of have a control over how labor goes and that's not the case we still
have um kind of no idea the twists and turns that labor might take and so being flexible
having patience and knowing that it could be a very long process ahead before we meet our baby is
going to set us up for success when we are in it the last thing is make sure you bring
all your cheat sheets and all of your information that you've got a childbirth class
anything that gives you like a reminder on things you want to remember remember
how to set up the room to make it look nice and peaceful a reminder about how to make
a decision strategy things that you learned in class if you took a childbirth class if you got
any materials this is the book that i give out in my childbirth class and i always tell my
students to bring these books you know show have these pictures available so you can remember
what you learned don't have to quiz yourself like totally cheat and labor so set yourself
up for success by packing all that stuff now more information on my childbirth class and
this book in particular is down below the video if you want to check that out so
speaking of packing stuff for labor for an induction i want you to pack all the things
like i really suggest that if you don't feel embarrassed by the amount of stuff that you're
walking into the hospital with you haven't packed enough you're packing for that ultra long road
trip that ultra marathon you know you're going to be there for a long time have twice as many snacks
as if you were going to have spontaneous labor have twice as many things to distract you you know
make sure you have multiple playlists and things to watch on your laptop and just things to support
you and keep you busy for a longer amount of time one thing that a lot of people wonder about
inductions is what are pitocin contractions like and so i actually have a video that i know
you're going to want to check out next that is right here that talks about pitocin whether
or not it is evil whether or not it hurts more what is it all about i get into the details in
this video and check it out let me know if you found this video helpful i always appreciate
a like and i'll see you next time bye guys
