Okay, my sister is at 40 weeks as of yesterday, has gestational diabetes (borderline), and they decided to induce on Thursday because they didn't want her going past her due date with the GD. So at 6am Thursday she is admitted to the hospital, given a few doses of cytotec (2 doses), then later on (around5pm) started on pitocin. She dilated to 1cm, was 50% effaced, baby at 0 station. No more progress, so they stopped the pitocin at midnight, restarted this am (friday) at 6am. Pitocin started at a low dose, left there for 4 hours, then upped until about 3pm. She was having mildly uncomfortable contractions every 2-3 minutes. MD said she would be by at 5pm to check her, and if having regular contractions she would break her water to help her progress. MD comes in, says that the hospital is pretty busy with people laboring, so they sent her home. SENT HER HOME! after 36 hours in the hospital, tons of meds, etc. It was the MD"s insistence that got her there in the first place, and now she is sent home and told to come back after the weekend and they will start over. She didn't care about the regular contractions, the high BP (130's over 95-100), the fact that she had family members who had driven 7 hours to get there, the 4+ pitting edema in her feet-none of it. THis is a first baby, and no mention was made of any possibility of not having the baby with an induction. Is this common? DOes this happen?? Or does this doc just suck??
Please be thankful that your sister's doctor is treating her in such a conservative manner. We L&D nurses wish more doctors would act this way. Ever hear of the doctor's oath to "do no harm?" The doctor is erring on the side of caution. Pushing Mother Nature as far as inducing someone DOES have the potentioal for harm.
As far as family being there, I am all for family being there at the apprropriate times. Flying in to be there when nothing is happeneing is jumping the gun. many aptients do not say so but they do NOT always feel comfortable having family all around all the time. I'm not saying that this is your sister's feeling, but it is food for thought.
This is just the beginning of your sister's time to learn patience. You and your family can model that for her by relaxing and not getting so bent out of shape about how this is all going.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
This is just the beginning of your sister's time to learn patience. You and your family can model that for her by relaxing and not getting so bent out of shape about how this is all going.
I agree. The pregnancy and delivery are just the beginning of testing our patience and mettle.......all of us who are parents know this. I am sorry the MD did not do a better job keeping you all in the loop. I can understand your frustration. Just try and hang in there. It won't be much longer..... :)
BETSRN
1,378 Posts
Please be thankful that your sister's doctor is treating her in such a conservative manner. We L&D nurses wish more doctors would act this way. Ever hear of the doctor's oath to "do no harm?" The doctor is erring on the side of caution. Pushing Mother Nature as far as inducing someone DOES have the potentioal for harm.
As far as family being there, I am all for family being there at the apprropriate times. Flying in to be there when nothing is happeneing is jumping the gun. many aptients do not say so but they do NOT always feel comfortable having family all around all the time. I'm not saying that this is your sister's feeling, but it is food for thought.