Induction of labor or to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.

     I read an interesting bit of news this weekend that offers me some hope.  Minnesota has saddled practitioners with a ton of new paperwork for elective inductions prior to 39 weeks.  This is wonderful news.  I  believe that the body knows when/how to go into labor to get the baby out.  I know that we often buy trouble in a big way when we attempt to induce labor when the body is not ready.  Some examples of this are cesarean deliveries because the cervix will not dilate, or stress on the baby during the induction process;  long stays in the hospital as we force the cervix to soften and ripen (which lead to huge bills and tired families);  hard labors that are often more difficult for the birth mother to deal with; and babies that end up in the special care nursery as a result of being born too early or being stressed during the delivery. 
     I get pregnant women who come to care fussing because they are "so miserable".  They often asked to be induced so they can:  have their favorite practitioner deliver them, stop hurting, eat more, breathe easier, start to lose weight, start to gain weight, not be nauseated, have their Mother with them, get the baby out before hunting season, have the baby's father at the birth, not be in the hospital over someones birthday or the next holiday. . . you get the idea.  Each and every woman thinks that she has a valid and workable reason not to continue to be pregnant.  The problem is that this means making the body do something (give up the baby) before whatever universal powers there are, have decided that it is time to launch this new spirit into the world. 
     There are several issues at work here.  One is the practitioner belief that no one should have pain or be uncomfortable.  Not every practitioner has this belief, but those that do, use induction freely.  Two is the practitioner belief that if the pregnant woman expresses the belief that only one practitioner is capable of delivering the ideal birth experience for this woman, with this pregnancy.  Induction often ensues, because practitioners want to keep their clients happy and coming back to them for future pregnancies.  Practitioners also depend on referrals from happy clients.  If a practitioner doesn't provide the induction on demand, that is portrayed as a mark against the practitioner.  Three is the belief that with modern medicine the baby can be taken care of, no matter what the issues.  Even if we caused the problem with an early induction.  Truth be told, modern medicine does a moderately good job of taking care of the problems caused by early deliveries. This also contributes to the problem of induction on demand, because both the practitioner and the client begin to believe we are in control of birth.  We are not.  The new law in Minnesota doesn't say that a practitioner can't do an early induction, it just doesn't pay the practitioner if the paperwork for justification is not all filled out and submitted.  I hope this is the start of the pendulum swinging the other way, back to allowing nature to give baby a birthday, not the practitioner.