liverock
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- Jul 18, 2008
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https://hsionline.com/2011/11/28/first-fear/
Very first fear
If you’re pregnant for the first time, or if friends or someone in your family are about to embark on parenthood, here’s a phrase you have to know before the baby arrives…
“Pit to distress.”
Any couple drafting a birthing plan needs to be aware of this practice. And they need to imagine it with a bright red circle around it and a red slash through the circle. Letting an obstetrician know that you won’t tolerate “pit to distress” could save your child from a health issue dreaded by parents the world over.
NOT acceptable
“Pit” is Pitocin. And as I’ve mentioned before, Pitocin is a synthetic pharmaceutical version of oxytocin, a hormone that naturally prompts contractions of the uterus during labor. In some cases, Pitocin use is necessary for women with preeclampsia and other pregnancy problems.
But “Pit to distress” is something else entirely.
When an obstetrician needs (or wants) to move labor along quickly, he may call for the highest dose of Pitocin, knowing the fetus will become distressed. Parents are then informed that their baby is in danger, and everyone hurries to an operating room for an emergency cesarean section.
The problem comes with that one word: “wants.”
You see, doctors will sometimes use “Pit to distress” to make their lives easier. Turn a 20-hour labor into a 10-hour labor? Sure — bring on the high dose of Pitocin and everybody’s home in time for dinner. And if there were no repercussions, what woman wouldn’t want to shave 10 hours off her labor? But excessive Pitocin makes labor more difficult and painful for the mother, and impedes blood and oxygen flow to the fetus, which is where the “distress” comes in.
Can you imagine? “Pit to distress” means a child’s entry into the world could be starting with a panicked fear of suffocation.
There’s no wonder why one nursing textbook describes “Pit to distress” as “not an acceptable order.”
Time to follow up…NOW
All of that is obviously bad enough. But now we’re starting to see evidence that excessive use of Pitocin may be linked to autism.
A few years ago, an autism specialist named Dr. Eric Hollander told Newsweek magazine that nearly two of every three autistic children he treats have been exposed to Pitocin during childbirth.
More recently, an informal survey of about a dozen midwives who had practiced for about 20 years could not identify a single case of autism in any of the children who they had helped deliver in home-births. It’s very unlikely that any of those births would have included Pitocin.
In another survey of about 400 midwives, no autism cases were reported.
All of this is circumstantial evidence, but it’s powerfully compelling — certainly compelling enough to follow up with rigorous studies. Especially because there are so many unanswered questions…
* Could any dose of Pitocin raise autism risk, or just a “distress” dose?
* Could other drugs interact with Pitocin to raise risk?
* Could anesthesia use play a role?
* Could genetic factors make a child hypersensitive?
If we’re ever going to eliminate the cause (or causes) of autism, we have to ask the hard questions and look at all the possibilities. Because we know that autism isn’t something that “just happens.” Something makes it happen.
Sources:
“ATTN: Researchers- Look in the first environment, the womb” Autism Today, autismtoday.com
“‘Pit to Distress’: Your Ticket to an ‘Emergency’ Cesarean?” Unnecesarean, 7/6//09, unnecesarean.com
