Wednesday 16 February 2005

at least my waters probably won't break at tescos


My blood pressure is up again and apparently there was a whole protein party happening in today's sample. The midwife is coming over tomorrow to check my blood pressure again, and she was quite confident that Mr. Lim (maybe he does actually exist!) would recommend induction when we see him on Friday. She doubted that he would want me to go past my due date, so it seems like if nature doesn't take over before next week, it'll be cervical gel and oxytocin for me. Oh joy.

Part of me is upset about the prospect of being induced. I never wanted to spend the entire labour in the hospital and I always thought a water birth was a lovely way to bring a child into this world. Another part of me welcomes induction, simply for the fact that it takes the mystery out of when labour will occur. I fully admit that pregnancy has become so uncomfortable now that giving birth in the near future is a welcome relief. I knew that I would never be able to have my heart set on any particular type of labour and birth because a lot of it is out of my control, but I was hoping that I would go into labour naturally since my blood pressure had come down. I suppose this is still an option, depending on what the enigmatic Mr. Lim says on Friday.

We tried to be positive about it by looking at the pros: we would be better prepared and would avoid a mad dash to the hospital, we can let my in laws know in advance what day we need them to come up here, and it's better than anxiously waiting for labour to start sometime in the next few weeks (and if I was late, they'd likely induce me anyway). It's still a bit scary, though. We'll see what happens after our appointment on Friday.

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