Alright, I’m still not quite talking about the actual medical induction. I wanted to steal a lesson to talk about the term augmentation - and why I think it belongs right here in the heart of the induction conversation too. 

What is an induction?

An induction of labor is when labor is not happening - nothing is going on, your water isn’t broken, you aren’t contracting - and your care team tries to do things and/or administer medications to get you into labor. We’ll go over the why and how of this more - but that is your basic definition of induction - trying to move the pregnant body from nothing going on into labor.

What is augmentation?

Augmentation is the term for when labor has started, but for some reason it stops or stalls, and together, you and your care team decide that you need to augment your labor, aka “move your labor along.” Here are some times augmentation may be needed:

• If your water breaks and labor doesn’t really start, or contractions don’t ever get closer or strong.
• If dilation slows to a point in which your care team thinks you need something to return labor back to a healthy or “normal” pace.
• If you are admitted to the unit for labor and then labor stops.

So - basic definition of augmentation? Labor has started - but then for some reason slows, stalls, or stops - and something is done to cause labor to increase in strength or begin again.

There are many different times that augmentation may become needed or be suggested. There are no hard and fast rules about when your provider may suggest doing something to “move things along.” But, the methods and medications that may be suggested to you in these times are really similar to those you could expect in a planned labor induction. This is why I wanted this information in here for you. It can be easy to think “oh, I am not having an induction - I don’t need to know about all of that stuff.” But what many do not realize is that labors get augmented VERY often - so you do want to know about all of this stuff, because more or less, a lot of these 2 technically different processes IS the same.

So, while much of what is covered here will be specific to a labor induction, augmentation can become a part of any labor story as well. So again, this information really is valuable for everyone.