I was truly horrified and upset to learn this week about a practice that is going on in the world of obstetrics that (until recently) has been little-known or talked about outside that world."Pit to Distress" is the term that is used in hospitals to describe the action of administering the highest possible dosage of Pitocin to a laboring woman, with the intention of deliberately distressing the fetus, so a C-section can be performed.
I first read about this phenomenon on Monday, via the wonderful blog, Keyboard Revolutionary. That is when mama, birth activist, and blogger, Jill, broke the news about "Pit to Distress" to the masses. Other blogs quickly picked up on the topic and it has since gone viral within the birth blogosphere.
I have been reeling all week as I continued to read shocking insights about this disturbing practice on various blogs, and I wanted to share the information with my readers. I encourage anyone who is considering a hospital birth, or who is concerned about the health and well-being of women and babies, to follow these eye-opening links:
Unnecesarean's super-informative follow-up to the original post at Keyboard Revolutionary. Followed by Part 2.
On Nursing Birth, a Labor and Delivery Nurse testifies to the all-too-real phenomenon of "Pit to Distress," and supplies mind-blowing examples of when she has seen it happen in her own personal experience on the job. Part 1 lays out the shocking facts of her experience, and part 2 supplies helpful information on how to protect yourself from such unnecessary and harmful interventions.
Over at Stand and Deliver, Rixa jumped in and offered a roundup of more insights on this issue.
I hope you take a few minutes to read over the information in these assorted posts. Let me know what you think!
APPALLING!
ReplyDeleteHoly crap. After reading these and freaking out a little, I am beginning to wonder if this is what happened to me:
ReplyDeletehttp://sheswordy.blogspot.com/2008/05/one-with-birth-story.html
it all sort of fits, thank you so much for bringing it to my attention!
I have no words- just anger.
ReplyDeleteSteph
um....wow? Wow.
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly how my first labor went.
ReplyDeleteI narrow avoided a C-Section.
They put me so high on the pit my doula encouraged me to get the epidural.
It makes me angry.
ReplyDeleteI'm just so confused as to why anyone would really want to do such a thing. And is this wide-spread, or just something a handful of doctors are doing?
ReplyDeleteMy doctors would never do something like that. They held off for as long as possible with my last child to induce me, and likely would have went longer if I would have insisted.
They were insistent that I be favorable for an induction... they didn't just want to do it for the sake of getting this all over with.
Crazy stuff!
Nell
I had two c-sections. I totally believe that I was a victim of this with my first child. What a shame!
ReplyDeleteWow. My first labor was this way too. Induced, put on the highest possible dosage of Pit over the course of about 8 hours and they were shrugging and acting like I was out of time when I finally dilated from 4-10 in about an hour. I got my epidural 45 minutes into that hour. Those 45 minutes were the most traumatically unnaturally painful minutes of my life. My second birth was drug free and I will never go back to a hospital. I am shudderingly angry reading this.
ReplyDelete... and to all those who believe a hospital is the only safe place to have a baby?!?!
ReplyDeleteWOW....how can they think doing this is right?
ReplyDeleteThank you for this post! All of the information you share has allowed me and Ryan to have more informed discussions about how we want to handle our next birthing experience. Jury is still out, but we feel empowered with information.
ReplyDeleteTo add to all the women believe this happened to them -- this story prompted us to realize that this *could* have happened to us if it weren't for our wonderful, amazing l&d nurse that we had by luck of the draw. She knew I was far more dilated than the obstetrician was trying to claim. (OB claimed I was at 6 when I was actually at 9, so put me on pitocin.) Our nurse scaled back the pitocin w/o the doc's permission. Who knows what would have happened if she hadn't done that?!
Wow. That is really, truly terrible. Evil maybe? Yes, I think so. Endangering the very (innocent) life they are trying to bring into this world unharmed? Sounds evil to me.
ReplyDeleteThough, with that said.. I am not all that surprised. It is why I decided, even as a first-time mom, to have my baby naturally (no drugs and little-to-no interventions), with a midwife, in a birthing center.
Everything went (mostly*) according to plan and my son is now a very happy, healthy 9-month-old.
*I had to have an episiotomy, but only after 3.5 hours of pushing and the midwife doing everything in her power to avoid it.
Hi!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to visit a great blog. Smart posts and beautiful photos. I like to contact people, all over the world, by his blogs.Would you follow me,because I'm afraid to lost your blog?I'm waiting your visit. Thank's
This makes me sick to my stomach.
ReplyDeleteThank you, thank you for this post.
Wow, this is crazy. I am a big fan of hospital births, just because of the 'what if' factor of something going wrong. But, yeah, that's scary. With my son, his heart rate kept dropping, and they kept giving more pitocin 'to make sure he could withstand the contractions'. But they had me all prepped for a C-section 'just in case', and thankfully I didn't have to have one. This time I may be more insistent on a more natural birth.
ReplyDeleteWow, I am at a loss of words. Luckily I had a wonderful doctor who delivered my children. But holy moly.....
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad this is getting posted!
Sadly, I'm not shocked. Docs know that pitocin puts the baby under stress, but they don't mind using it...even unnecessarily. They gave me pitocin despite the fact that I was fully dilated. My contractions just weren't uniform enough for their taste. How shocking that not too long afterward I was being carted into surgery because my baby was stressed. Hmmmm...wonder why.
ReplyDeleteMakes me so glad to have had two uneventful home births. The OB I had with my second (before I mercifully got into midwife care) was talking C-section before I was even in the third trimester. He phrased it like, "You know, things don't always go as planned. Start thinking now about the possibility of a c-section. They are very common. Blah blah blah blah." He also told me that when it comes down to a patient's choice in their birth plan versus him maybe being sued, he'll override the patient whenever he can. It was appalling.
ReplyDeleteI agree. That is truly "horrifying and appalling." I wonder how common the practice really is...
ReplyDeleteCompletely disturbing.
ReplyDelete