Elfanie wrote:
On Mon, 17 May 2004 10:46:03 -0500, "Nikki" wrote:

Elfanie wrote:

administering pitocin a couple hours after water breaks
spontaniously

If the midwife HADN'T have given you Pitocin, and if you'd ended up
with an infection from having your membranes ruptured for longer,
then the midwife could have been brought up on charges of
malpractice for not doing the "standard of practice", which is to
administer Pitocin.

Is it really 'standard of practice' to administer pitocin so soon
after a person's water breaks? I thought they waited a number of
hours for labor to start on its own before taking that step?


This REALLY depends on where you are...
Most places will wait 5-12 hours, depending on where you are of
course.
the "24-hour mark" also depends on where you are...some care
providers want you "in good active labor" 24 hours after your water
breaks, and thus might feel comfortable waiting for 12-14 hours.
Others want the baby BORN 24 hours after your water breaks...those
care providers usually start pushing pitocin after just a few hours.

Oh I didn't realize things like that varied so much by region. I thought
there was some universal standard of care protocol out there somewhere, lol.
I realized that individual professionals often did things very differently
but I thought the were just going off their own experience/preferences then.

Thanks for the explanation!
--
Nikki
Mama to Hunter (5) and Luke (3)