Changing Doctors, Part 1

Just recently I've decided that I need to change doctors. Not because my current doctor, Dr. Levy, is a jerk or anything - I actually think he's a pretty cool doctor. No, I'm changing because my doctor has a strict policy on inducing.

Dr. Levy told me up front that he induces if you haven't gone into labor on your own within three days after the due date. Well, when I first went to see Dr. Levy I was still in a little bit of shock. I mean, I had only found out two weeks before that I was pregnant and going to be a mother by the end of the year. I hadn't even done any research on pregnancy, which is completely against everything my neurotic personality generally dictates!

He explained that he induces so he can schedule the deliveries when he will be available. He also told me that it can be dangerous to let a baby go past the due date. So, in my inexperienced mind I figured doctor knows best.

After a couple of months, I decided to ask my friend, Meghann, who's studying to become a nurse about this policy. She immediately told me not to let him induce me. Meg then resorted to pulling out a book called Birth (warning - this book is not for the squeamish). She was reading some horrible stories about the way doctors have handled deliveries for the last so many years. She also gave me some of the statistics, and explained that doctors are using drugs to induce labor and cesareans at a very high percentage, once that many patient advocates states isn't necessary.

That in itself scared me to enough to find every document I could on being induced and find out if it's good, as my doctor says, or bad, as my friend explained. I can to the conclusion that there are both pros and cons of inducing labor. However, the statement that I kept reading over and over said that you should only induce labor for medical reasoning (i.e. the baby is over a week to two weeks late or you have gestational diabetes), not for scheduling reasons.

I had an appointment coming up with my doctor, so I thought I would reexamine the issue with him. Maybe he would be more lenient since I had already been going to him for a few months. That being said, I wasn't surprised when he wouldn't budge on his policy. So here I am 20+ weeks pregnant and no doctor...