Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Reality Truly IS Stranger Than Fiction

Jill at The Unnecesarean has a fascinating post today on "Pit to Distress" - the obstetrical practice of intentionally giving laboring women more pitocin than they or their babies can handle in order to induce fetal distress and necessitate an "emergency cesarean." (Pitocin is a synthetic form of the hormone oxytocin, which causes uterine contractions.)

Here is a quote from another blogger (Jill from Keyboard Revolutionary) that Jill included about the practice:

Pit to distress.” How have I not heard about this? Apparently it’s quite en vogue in many hospitals these days. Googling the term brings up a number of pages discussing the practice, which entails administering the highest possible dosage of Pitocin in order to deliberately distress the fetus, so a C-section can be performed.

"Yes folks, you read that right. All that Pit is not to coerce mom’s body into birthing ASAP so they can turn that moneymaking bed over, but to purposefully squeeze all the oxygen out of her baby so they can put on a concerned face and say, “Oh dear, looks like we’re heading to the OR!”


This is scary, scary stuff.... Check it out here.

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