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cesarean sections – that substantially increase health and safety risks for mom and baby. To be clear, I am opposed to elective induction. Period. Labor induction should always be based on a medical indication, and the rate should not exceed about 10% of all births. Yet in the US the national average is at least 23% – double what it was 2 decades ago. Reasonable indications for induction include maternal high blood pressure associated with preeclampsia or eclampsia (this is different than slightly elevated blood pressure in late pregnancy), medical conditions that can put you or baby at risk in labor (uncontrolled diabetes, HIV, heart disease, kidney disease, a blood clotting disorder, or possibly cholestasis of pregnancy), and intrauterine growth restriction. Medical indications require medical inductions – that is, they should be done using conventionally accepted methods under medical supervision – for your and baby's safety. Labor should not be induced "electively," meaning done for convenience- sake, or for cultural, psychological, or "social" reasons rather than medical ones. Elective induction prior to 39 weeks increases the risk of preterm delivery, which potentially increases baby's risks of lifelong health and developmental problems. Elective induction also increases your risk of cesarean section if you are a first-time mom. All methods of induction carry the risks of complications. Living far away from the hospital, having a history of fast labors, or having more than five prior vaginal deliveries are not medical indications for induction. The inDucTion Gray Zone So, if I am opposed to induction, why am I doing a how- to blog? Because countless healthy, intelligent, and responsible women have approached me over the years, seeking natural alternatives to the medical induction they are being threatened with for "gray area" medical reasons. And when faced with the only option being hospital induction, knowledge of age-old traditional methods of induction becomes power. • Gray zone reasons that women are typically presented with include her being told that: • Her baby is too big so she is going to be medically induced before it gets any bigger. • She is too overdue so she is going to be medically induced. • Birthing center or homebirth policy requires her care to be transferred to the OB for a hospital birth if she hasn't had the baby by a certain window after the due date. Why are these gray areas? • Estimates of fetal weight can be grossly inaccurate. Many women are induced before they are really, ready for labor, sometimes even ending up with a cesarean, only to have a perfectly reasonably sized baby that wasn't too big at all. Besides, what IS too big? Many women – even first-time moms – can birth "big" babies without induction and without a problem. Size isn't everything! • Though we are enamored with them, due dates, even based upon ultrasound, are notoriously inaccurate leading to induction at what is calculated to be at term or post due, only for baby to be right on time, or premature. One radical idea is just to ignore your due date entirely! (Though you'll have to convince your midwife or doc to do the same!) • By all conventional medical standards, the length of a normal human pregnancy extends all the way to the end of Abby's Magazine - Volume 5 Issue 5 | Page 27