Would You Induce Your Baby To Fit In With Your Partner’s Schedule?

A friend told me recently that she was going to have her baby induced, because her husband had an important job coming up and she didn’t want him missing the birth. I don’t want to judge their decision – it’s their choice and if they both agree and doctors give it the all-clear, then good for them.

But it did make me think: would I do the same thing? Quite honestly, my answer is ‘no way!’

The truth is, I would do anything to avoid being induced. From what I hear via friends who’ve gone through it, it’s not the most pleasant experience. Sure, labour is never a walk in the park but inducing tends to fast-track the slow build-up to birth and takes you to the ‘this f***ing hurts’ stage pretty quickly.

Both my babies were a few days overdue and the fear of having to go through an induction had me squeezing my nipples, engaging in cumbersome sex and wolfing down mouth-blistering hot curries by the bucket-load (and sometimes all three at once!) in the hope of naturally bringing on labour.

Also, I’m no doctor, but I’m of the belief that unless babies need to come out early due to medical reasons, they are best delivered after being cooked for the optimum number of weeks. I’m sure this is a view shared by my good mate, Mother Nature.

If my husband ever suggested we have our baby induced because of his job I’d be sorely unimpressed. Firstly, it’s just a job! The most important day at work is never more significant than the day your baby is born.

Even if he was getting paid truckloads of cash for his work, it wouldn’t make his job any more important than meeting his baby. And when you think about it, all jobs have their own importance – for example, our lives would be very difficult if it weren’t for garage collectors but you don’t see them asking for their partners to be induced on the weekend because bin day is on Wednesday!

The thing about babies is that they’re unpredictable little things - they don’t pop into this world and neatly fit into our schedules. Birth is a great introduction to this crazy new role called ‘parenthood’ – and that job is far more important than all of those you’ve both had before it.