Are you facing intense pressure to induce? Well, I hope that today’s podcast will help!
This time last year I was 11 days over my due date so I was never more than a few hours away from hearing the word “induction”. Being an older mum also put me in the high-risk category, so I was under some pretty intense pressure to induce from my consultants too. This experience forced me to educate myself on various aspects of induction; the risks of induction versus the risks of waiting, especially if you’re high risk or an older mum. I was committed to having a natural home birth so it was important for me to be able to stand my ground with confidence against this pressure to induce knowing that I wasn’t putting myself and my baby at risk.
How to cope in the face of pressure to induce
So, I thought it would be a good time to explore the whole induction thing in a podcast. Most pregnant mamas are going to have to wrestle with this one and it can be pretty stressful, especially if you just don’t know what to do.
When you’ve been so focused on your due date for so long, and it comes and goes, it can be really tempting to just go with whatever your consultant or midwife is suggesting. Perhaps it’s because you trust them, you believe that they have your best interests at heart, you’re worried about your baby or maybe you’re just fed up already with being pregnant and just want to meet your baby. Whatever it is, the one thing that I would urge you to do is BE INFORMED and make your decision from a calm informed place, rather than a fearful place.
I hope that today’s podcast episode will bring you nearer to being in the informed, calm place. To help me, today I’m going to be chatting to Patti Good.
Patti Good is an empowerment expert for powerful women. Her mission is to help women transform their fear into power, their baggage into blessings and live a life of renewed health and inspired joy! She is a Senior Accredited Journey Therapist, a HypnoBirthing Practitioner and Practitioner Trainer, a Certified BodyTalk Practitioner, Doula and Training Reiki Master. Patti is mom to darling Max who is 6. She loves chocolate, spending time snuggled up in her marshmallow bed and helping women take their power back makes her want to skip!
During our chat, we talk about loads, including…
Patti explains how our muscles in the uterus work, and how one is dependent on mum’s stress levels and another isn’t…. and WHY it’s important to get these working together efficiently… but importantly HOW!
We talk about due dates – AGAIN! And why it’s important to be working toward a due date that you have more confidence in. Here’s my Due Date Cheat Sheet if you haven’t got it already. Use this to calculate your due date based on calculation methods that are based on research. If you want to know more about the farce that is the due date calculation method then check out this podcast episode here. Patti shares some of her top tips for staying in a great place mentally in the due date drop zone so that you can better handle the pressure to be induced situation.
(I’m sorry but this free guide is no longer available. If you are looking for super useful resources such as this then join the Fearless Mama Ship. Find out more here.)
We also talk about the importance of fear release and letting go of your fears.. after all, it could be your mind and body that is stopping baby from coming out. When you’re fearful, your fears reside in your mind AND your body which is why it’s so important to do the fear clearance work. We talk about why energy psychology techniques are the best techniques for this kind of clearance work. Some of the techniques we mention include Reflective Repatterning, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) and Body Talk.
A talk about inductions wouldn’t be complete without mentioning monitoring so if this is what you’re having to deal with, then we share some ways that you can minimise the stressfulness of being monitored
Patti shares some things that you can do to kick start labour.. including why acupuncture is her favourite.
It’s a jam-packed episode and I hope you find it useful.
If you want to find out more about Patti and her work
Patti’s website and her Facebook and Twitter.
Did this answer your questions about induction? Is there anything else that you would like to know? Have you got an induction experience that you’d like to share? Let me know in the comments!
Alexia supports families planning pregnancy and birth. She helps them to overcome their fears and feel calm and confident about birth and pregnancy.
Alexia also trains birth professionals in the Fearless Birthing, a unique approach to birth preparation that is ideal for those who have fears around birth.
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Hi Alexia, in this podcast you mention the research you did to feel confident in challenging the consultant’s/midwife’s pressure to induce. Is there a link to this research so can go forward fully informed? Thanks ?
Hi Diana,
I carried out research that related to my own personal situation: that of being an older mother. I would urge you to seek out the research that relates your own situation. There are lots of great sites that can help you with this now. My favourite is Evidence Based Birth. ACOG and RCOG also good, but slightly more difficult to consume as they’re actual research papers.
I hope that helps!
Alexia
Hi Alexia, has your cheat sheet been moved? The link doesn’t work 🙁 thanks x
Hi Claire, Try this link https://www.fearfreechildbirth.com/lm/due-date-cheat-sheet/
Alexia