While most of the time your OBGYN is going to wait until your body goes into labor naturally, there are going to be some circumstances where it is necessary for them to speed up the process. This is often done when there is something wrong with either you or the baby. This may be because you have gestational diabetes, high blood pressure, pre-eclampsia, or some other serious condition. Rather than run the risk of something bad happening to either of you, your OBGYN is instead going to take matters into their own hands by doing what they can do induce labor. There are a few different ways that OBGYNs can go about bringing on labor quite successfully. This article is going to discuss two ways that your OBGYN can help you go into labor.
Strip Your Membranes
One way to help induce labor is to strip your membranes. This is done by carefully separating the membrane of the amniotic sac from the wall of your uterus. Your OBGYN will do this with a gloved hand, and will do so slowly and carefully so as to cause you the least amount of pain possible and to make sure that they do it correctly. When the amniotic sac is stripped away from the wall of your uterus, this is going to release hormones that are known to cause contractions. These contractions in turn can then send you into labor. While this isn't a fail-safe method for inducing labor, it is one that is fairly safe and does yield good results.
Pitocin
A medicine that is used in the hospital to induce labor is known as pitocin. Pitocin is going to cause the uterus to contract, which is essentially a contraction. The amount of pitocin can be lowered or raised, depending on how your body is reacting to it. If your body doesn't seem to want to go into labor, the amount of pitocin that you are being given will be raised until the contractions begin to come on consistently and you begin to dilate. Once your begin dilating, your body is preparing to deliver the baby and the pitocin is doing it's job. Once you are dilated to a 10, you are then ready to push. The pitocin is also going to be used after birth to help your body to stop bleeding from all of the open organs that your baby disconnected from when they came through the birth canal.
