If you delivered at a hospital- did you have to have an IV?

Just curious if you delivered at a hospital, did you have to have one? I would prefer not to have one this time AT ALL and Im wondering if that will be OK or if its going to be a battle.
If you were able to go without one, did they make you at least have a hep lock? I dont want that either.

 

I was induced (attempted anyway) and GBS+ so no IV wasn't an option...

at least if you have the hep lock IF you do need an IV right away at least they won't have to stick you during the chaos...

 

With my first delivery, I did, but it was because I tested positive for group B strep, so needed antibiotics -- which are delivered through the IV. They also gave me some pitocin when my labor stalled several hours in.

It probably depends on the individual hospital's policy. I'm guessing most of them will give you a hard time about it. Will you have a midwife or doula? It would be helpful to have someone advocate for you, I think.

Good luck!

 

with all 4 of my deliveries I had to have an IV. 3 vaginal, 1 c-section.

 

I had a c-section, so I had an IV.

 

Whether you get an IV or not depends on how your birth progresses. My first dd I wanted a natural birth. I wasn't progressing, and so to induce me required an IV.

My twins were induced - IV.

You can go into the hospital with the best of plans - just know that births don't always progress per that plan! The end goal is a healthy baby and a healthy mom.

 

Yes, I did for both of my deliveries. One vag and one c/s.

 

well c/s for me, so yes. But a friend of mine was able to have the midwife deliver her at our base hospital and she agreed not to do an IV if it weren't necessary. So while I can't say that's standard, I know it has happened before!

 

I had no IV for my first three deliveries--which all went quickly and easily. I did have an IV already in when I delivered the twins because they thought my early contractions were from dehydration. I didn't care either way--one good thing about having an IV already in place, even if you are not having an induction or pain meds--if for some reason, you should experience an emergency, especially involving a sudden drop in blood pressure (a "crash" as they say, often caused by sudden bleeding out), it can be extremely difficult for the medical team to get an IV hooked up because when you have a crash your veins are much harder to find and get a needle into.

For this reason, if you are at any risk at all during your delivery, I would allow an IV as a precaution. You don't need to have anything (except plain hydrating fluid) going into it, but if anything should become necessary, there won't be the added emergency of trying to get you hooked up in the middle of a crisis, as a PP pointed out.

 

With my 1st, I was induced, so yes, IV... 2nd, induced again, so yes, IV... 3rd, I don't think I had one (can you believe I can't remember?), the delivery was pretty quick, and no complications... 4th, I had one AFTER the birth, I think they wanted my uterus to contract more, so they gave meds... Twins birth, they gave me one in the midst of heavy contractions, just before I delivered the first one... I was supposed to have an epidural, but there was no time, and they wanted to have the IV in just in case... It was a good thing they did, I ended up having a D&C afterwards (placenta wouldn't detach), and got some pretty good morphine (which took away all the pain, but made me sick)...

I would just go with the flow... Your medical team will know best, and I wouldn't second guess them...

 

Yikes! You should 2nd guess everything! Every medication, ever dosage, every pinprick, whether or not the doctor has washed their hands between tehir last patient and you!
I dont know if you saw the Todays Show last week or read books/magazine but there was just a big article printed called "Josie's' Story" See HERE An 18 month old died 2 days before she was to come home due to simple medical errors that could have bene prevented. It was heart wrenching.

 

I would let them insert one before delivery, just in case. No, medical teams don't always know best, but twin deliveries are often risky and if they need to get those babies out in 60 seconds, you don't want them spending 55 seconds trying to insert an IV.

 

I did. They put it in during triage and wouldn't take it out until the day they discharged me. I so hated that thing by the time they took it out.

 

I had one, but I had a C-Section so they pumped me full of pain killers and antibiotics.

 

I did have one. I didn't have a choice.

ETA: I should say I had a vaginal birth, induction.

 

I was already in the hospital on bedrest so yes I had an IV.

 

Ditto. I had like 4 or 5 of them over the course of 4 months.

 

I had an IV will all my kids as I had strep B and needed anti-biotics.

It is our hospital policy to have the IV when in the O.R., which is where all twins are birthed at our hospital.

 

FYI to all of you posting about twin births.....her twins are 19 months old and she is expecting a singleton.

FWIW at the hospital I delivered I had the IV when I had my boys since I had a c-section. My SIL who delivered at the same hospital had one for her first 2 (both induced) but not for her third. It's a large teaching hospital, but they are usually fairly willing to go along with the patients.

I would talk with your doctor or midwife about this now and see how they want to handle it or to see if there is even an option to not have one at the hospital where you will deliver.

 

Thanks for clarifying that for others
I plan to talk with my doctor at my next appointment, I just wanted to know if I am going to be coming compltely out of left field or if there are hospitals that will actually let that fly.

With my twins I was induced so I had the IV, I had pitocin, heck I even ended up with an epidural and of course I delivered in the OR (even though it was vaginal). This time Im shooting for the complete opposite.
Id like to go into labor on my own, no IV, no pitocin, no epidural, and deliver in a regular room.

We'll see what happens

 

Same here. :good:

 

Ditto. I tested pos. for group B so I had to have anti-biotics.

 

It is our hospital's policy to always have an IV, but you can refuse whatever medical treatment you wish, as always. They can't FORCE you to do anything.

 

True, but if you do something against medical advice, your insurance can refuse to pay for for any or all of your treatment. Keep that in mind.

Also, some OBs treat every pregnancy after a high-risk pregnancy as high-risk. Since having twins is by default high-risk, certain OBs will consider every subsequent pregnancy as high risk (at least my OB does). This might require having certain things like an IV, etc. I would find this out ahead of time.

Best of luck!

 

just wanted to second this. we don't have to deal with the insurance issue up here though so that might be something to consider.

i had to "fight" to not have an IV, but i got my way. by fight, i mean i just kept asking if we could put it off for another hour. by the time i was pushing, i still didn't have one. ardon: i did get hooked up after the birth because my uterus wasn't contracting as well as they would like - knowing what i know now though, i would have probably fought harder to not have it even after the birth. i would have preferred to have had my uterus massaged more often & been pumping more frequently during the day to help my uterus contract more on its own.

 

With my DD I had a 100% drugfree birth and had no IV. I didn't need one because I keep drinking water between contractions. It actually never came up though. After I delievered DD, the nurse was cleaning me up and grabbed my hand and said in a suprised tone "O, you don't have an IV, cool!" and that was that. LOL I never knew I had to have one.

The only reason I was told I would need one was if i was going to get an epi but I didn't want one so they didn't bother me about it at all. It was really nice having all of that freedom to move around.

 

I posted on the Josie thing somewhere else, here I will only say what happened in my births.

My first birth (twins, very suddenly, preterm) I had an IV that they just about managed to shove into my near invisible vein and then twin A was here. I am glad it was there eventually because I needed some medication postbirth (even though I had a drugfree delivery of both twins).
My second live birth was drugfree, IV free in a birthing centre. It was great, but I was lucky. I "spit" them out practically, my labour was very short and by the time I arrived in the birthing centre I was already practically pushing. We had no time to fill the birthing pool, because she was here before the water even covered the whole pool. I liked the idea of not having anything in my body, but had I needed anything, I would not have declined an IV. Even as a medical person, I am not a birth specialist, so how do I even know what I need when? And I had (unfortunately) a woman die on me last year postbirth (haemorrhage) and it taught me (again) how dangerous birth really is.
Sure a drugfree, natural birth is wonderful, but being alive at the end of the process is really the most important thing. You can have a wonderful plan in your head but you do not know your body well enough to know how it will react in any given situation. I would rather trust the people around me enough to trust them whether or not they give me an IV. If they feel I need it, then I would not question this at all! That is why I chose those people to give birth at.
M.

 

I had an IV for both deliveries but they were planned c sections.

As far as questioning every pin prick etc. that the nurses and Dr.'s do I can understand questioning a bit but when you decide on a Dr and a hospital or place of delivery you have to at some point accept that the decisions you made were the right ones and then allow those professionals to do the job you hired them to do. I know there are more cases of malpractice than we can count but how many more would there be if we (and I mean me and un-medically educated person) questioned each and every decision a medical professional made while they were in the rush of doing their job.

 

im pretty sure in our hospital and especially twins delivery if they need to do any emergency things an IV is necessary; isnt it to help keep you hydrated? someone can correct me if im wrong?

 

I quite honestly don't remember. I'm sure I did, I had a c-section and had been on bedrest forever (trying to fight off contractions). But in the grand scheme of things, the IV was so minor I just don't even remember having it.

 

Same here. My dr would have been open to it though, especially if I were having a singleton. (I switched OBs at 31w to one who wasn't quite so extremely high-intervention.)

 

often times yes - because many hospitals have a routine policy of not allowing women to eat or drink during labour (which is a whole other issue). as some other ladies have mentioned, they also needed to receive IV antibiotics due to testing positive for group B strep. also, when you have an epidural you need to have an IV because you can sometimes have a sudden drop in blood pressure - the extra fluids from the IV will help balance that out.

my issue with IVs is that more often than not they're routine - you show up in triage, they hook you up to an IV. whether you need one or not. that gets my goat.

 

Cheryl you got a point for this. I think you are absolutely right. We see so many non-medical people who have googled up things that are incorrect/partially correct and then we have to explain ourselves, why we do the job we do in the way we do and not how some quack described it online. I don't go to my lawyer and tell her: I read online that once a guy sued the world and got 7 mio out of it, I want to do the same, please tell me exactly which paper you fill out with which pen. I don't go to my favourite restaurant and go into the kitchena and tell the cook how to prepare food. By chosing THAT lawyer and THAT restaurant I feel that they will do what is in my best interest. Especially you guys who have a certain level of choice (we do not have hat in our hospitals as it is centrally regulated, you can chose your family dr but if you are deliveriung whoever is on call will be your dr).

I understand basic caution, I think asking questions is great, I think being informed is very important. But making the drs and nurses see that you do not trust them (especially with basics such as a saline drip in case you need some form of medication later on) will only make them less friendly and cooperative. And it does make our jobs harder.
If I got a penny for every patient that told me how online she read that amnio causes pregnancy loss/stillbirth/deformities in huge numbers (one woman told me about every second pregnancies gets lost in the process )and she would rather not do that and also why don't we do fetal DNA sampling from her blood stream (a technique that is not yet good enough to use, however hopefully our children will be able to in their pregnancies, BUT of course the newspapers have blown it up as if it was already in use)... I would probably be a millionaire!
M.

 

Millie-

I love reading your viewpoints. I should mention, just because Ive become a paranoid pregnant basket case lately and have been thinking about questioning every small thing, I dont actually do that
I do ask quetions and voice my concerns but as we discussed in one of my other threads my doctor and I are a team.
I had a great delivery with the twins and her by my side. Im sure I will have the same experience this time- IV or NO IV but it would be nice to try without one

 

I'm a nurse & can count on both hands the times I've ever cared for a patient without one. If someone is sick enough to be in the hospital, they're sick enough to warrant an IV (for just in case measures, if not for being in use). That being said, I do not work on Labor & Delivery. But, I do know a little bit about medical emergencies that can arise in labor & delivery, in which I would most definitely want an IV already in. Even the best nurse can have a hard time getting an IV in during a crisis & I would never want to jeopardize my life or my child's life while we waited. Again, being in the medical field, I look at worse case scenarios. I'm sure there are LOTS of deliveries that wouldn't warrant an IV, but I'm a "just in case" kinda girl . To me, it's no big bother...but I have had a lot of patients fight me on them, too. You would not be the first woman to fight one . Best of luck in your upcoming delivery...with or without an IV!!!!