Pit to Distress

Oh my. I have been reading on Facebook recently about a hospital procedure known as "Pit to Distress." What this means is that pitocin is administered to a laboring woman in a maximum dose in order to distress the baby so they can move to cesarean. While we all had our nightmare scenarios, this one appears to be real. Several nurses have blogged about it, as well as Jill at Unnecesarean.

I have spent a lot of time ruminating about this over the past week or two, and I am still flabbergasted that obstetricians get away with this kind of behavior... even occasionally. If a midwife did something so reckless, they would be hauled into court and they would never practice again. Why should obstetricians be free to cause distress to an unborn baby in order to perform surgery? What harm are they potentially causing to the baby? What about the mother, who's uterus may become hyperstimulated or even rupture? What if, due to this practice, she loses her uterus and her potential to have more children? Who holds these obstetricians responsible?

Now, I obviously realize that there are some excellent OBs out there who would never consider doing such a thing. But the fact that even one can get away with doing this repeatedly puts mothers and babies at risk. How do they not lose their license? How can they still attract patients? How can they still have privileges at the hospital? Who do we lobby to change this? ACOG posts their guidelines, but obviously the docs do what they want (look at VBAC...).

Our maternity system needs a major overhaul... thank goodness there are some nurses out there who do what they can to keep as many women from experiencing Pit to Distress as much as possible. When a woman checks into the hospital... she trusts that she is in good hands. Obviously, this is not always the case.