Pit to Distress

"Pit to Distress" is a brand new term which is quickly becoming quite well known. What does it mean?

It means that it is the quickest way to an unnecessary c-section - otherwise called an "emergency" c-section.

So what does this new term and new procedure entail exactly?

Well, this procedure is pretty disturbing...it involves deliberately administering the highest dose of pitocin to induce labor knowing that the baby will more certainly go into fetal distress and that a cesarean section will need to be performed in order to save his life.

If you are not sure you read the last paragraph correctly you may want to read it again.

Why would anyone do this?

Want a hint?

Green paper otherwise called money!

You think we have gone overboard and that maybe we are a tad dramatic or worse heretic? No problem. The term "pit to distress" was first used in July of 2006 in an article which appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

First let's figure out what is pitocin and what is the big deal?

Pitocin is a synthetic version of a hormone called oxytocin and which plays a major role in labor as it enables your uterus to contract. It is often used to induce labor. Too much pitocin can - and will - reduce the oxygen flow to your uterus and therefore to your baby causing him or her to become distressed.

In malpractice claims, the use of Pitocin is involved in over 50% of cases. This is not a drug to take lightly! However, it seems many OBGYNs like to use drugs as if they were M&Ms and as if they are totally harmless. Nothing could be further from the truth!

Still don't believe us?

"Pit to distress" is also mentioned on page 182 of the textbook Labor and Delivery Nursing by Michelle Murray and Gayle Huelsmann.

On her website - Keyboard Revolutionary - Jill asks a great question:

No, women who choose to birth at home are better educated than the average woman on the street and they choose to birth at home because they are convinced that home is not only better, but safer!

It is unsafe, unproven practices like "pit to distress", cytotec, episiotomies, restriction of movement and a slew of other interventions that make women all over the country decide that home or a free standing birth center with a midwife is the best way to go to bring their baby into the world.

For most OBGYNs however, the motto is:

The saddest part of such practices is the women - and their babies - who have suffered at their doctor's hands and yet still see him as the hero who saved their baby's life. Therefore they ask how others could be so dumb as to plan an out of hospital birth without the presence of such a hero by their side?

How do you make such women see that most of the problems in childbirth could have been avoided in the first place? The statistics of The Farm are a prime example that birthing with a midwife is better and much safer. But we have found out that there is no reasoning with fear.

Pit to distress was mentioned in the comments of the post "My Rant on Pitocin" on Knitted in the Womb after the blog's author, a former chemist and doula, was scolded by an anonymous OB nurse for not understanding the difference between microunits and milliliters when it came to dosing Pitocin:

Do you think we are overly dramatic?

Here is something else...In Ohio, the largest jury award for a medical malpractice case was just awarded. Indeed, Miami Valley Hospital was found liable for $31 million in damages. The suit involved pitocin and a case of pit to distress in which a mother and her baby boy almost lost their lives.

She escaped with just a "blown apart" uterus - literally - and her little boy "Leo" with a severe case of cerebral palsy which leaves him unable to talk, walk, or lead a normal life.

These parents went home with a disabled child and their lives will forever be changed. So when the rest of the world thinks you are nuts for choosing an out of hospital birth...we think instead, you know that you can never skirt your responsibility on someone else. Ultimately, no matter what, you take your baby home and live with the consequences of other people's actions as well as your own. You know that an out of the hospital is the surest way for you - and your baby - to have the birth you want and deserve.

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