Induction scare

What a day, what a day! We were almost convinced to induce labor today, which is one of the last things I want. I really want a natural birth, and induction makes it so much harder! So here's how it went down...

I'm exactly 41 weeks today, and that late in the game you have to go into the office to get a non-stress test (NST). They hook up monitors to your belly for 30 minutes, and make sure that the baby moves enough and has a good heart rate. The second part of it is that they perform an ultrasound and make sure that you still have enough amniotic fluid around baby.

I passed the NST, but baby didn't perform wonderfully. He/she was sleeping so didn't move much. When she did the ultrasound to check my fluid, she said they like to see levels of at least 10, and under 5 is cause for concern. She found 6.

So she called in whatever doctor was available, who was a woman I saw 3 years ago for an annual exam and hated. She's so condescending. Anyway, she came in and immediately told us that we needed to induce, threatening me with my baby dying! This actually has the opposite affect on me when doctors threaten horrible consequences - I know they're trying to scare me into cooperating, but instead I see it as BS and don't trust what they're saying.

To be clear, we absolutely want to do what's best for our baby! We wouldn't do anything to put it in danger, but we want to be educated and know all our options, and likely outcomes from each option.

I asked her to do another ultrasound to check the fluid, and she reluctantly agreed. She said the level was 1. I mentioned that the nurse had previously found 6 and the nurse denied it! But she totally told us the level was at 6 - James and I both agree.

Another doctor came in to talk to us, and after considering all the information we decided to go ahead and go to the hospital. If it's that dangerous to have low fluid, we had to do what's best for our baby, even though that went against our plan.

But when we got to the hospital, I insisted that they do another NST. I'm certainly not pumping myself full of drugs before my body is ready without another opinion.

Guess what? The monitoring of baby's heart rate? Peanut did great!! There was plenty of movement, a fabulous heart rate, and no cause for concern. Then came the ultrasound. The midwife found a fluid level of 10.5! Over 10 is what they want and I'm doing just fine.

So here I am, at home, a week overdue, drug free and not in labor. I absolutely want to be in labor right now, but I want it to happen naturally. I'm so happy that I asked questions and made them double check their information, rather than just allow that b!tch doctor to do whatever she wants with me. And I'm most of all happy that I have a healthy baby!