# Starting & stopping pitocin



## koru (Sep 7, 2006)

I have a friend who recently was induced but because her midwives knew she wanted an unmedicated birth, gave her the option of turning it off when she was 5cm. To my surprise, it worked! Her body took over right where the pit left off and she said there wasn't even a lull or change in intensity. How prevalent is this? I've always thought that when pitocin is introduced, naturally made oxytocin decreases (negative feedback kinda thing). So my thinking would be that it would take one's body a while to start excreting oxytocin after the pit was stopped. Or maybe it slowly increases as the pit decreases? Am I making sense?


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## clovergirl33 (Jul 2, 2008)

I'll be interested in reading the responses to this one...

I have never seen this tried, but I have seen the opposite several times -- women who are being induced and have been on pit for a long time -- adequate regular contractions. Then the decision is made to stop the pit (usually for a FTP c-section), and the contractions COMPLETELY stop when the pit is stopped.


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## annekh23 (Nov 1, 2008)

Not a birth professional, but when I was induced, they had to turn the pit off due to hyperstimulation and I continued contracting at only a slightly reduced frequency, so I've often wondered what would have happened if the pit hadn't been turned back on after I got an epidural.


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## momileigh (Oct 29, 2002)

It totally depends.

I often advocate, if labor must be induced, to have the pit stopped at a certain point to see if her body will take over and she can proceed with natural labor.

If the pit contractions have brought the baby lower, dilated the cervix some and effaced it, at some point the body will take over. There might be a lull after they turn the pit off... that is so individual, you can't say whether it will happen or not. But as long as the fetal head is putting pressure on a soft, thin, opening cervix, that's going to stimulate contractions right there.

Once when I was with someone in the hospital who was on pit, we requested they turn it off when she was (supposedly, I didn't check her) 6cm. They warned her and really hesitated, saying that labor would surely stop. In her pain-med-free pitocin-induced labor, she totally snapped at them and they did turn it off. Her contractions continued like gangbusters, shortly thereafter she screamed for meds, they went off to get her some narcotic, and the baby fell out while they were down the hall.


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