Feeling totally bummed out at getting induced, and surprised at how sad I am! Help and encouragement please!!

[Pigallina]

First post here ladies! Have lurked for years and finally popping my posting cherry! Sorry if long!
Basically, 3rd pregnancy, 1st actual baby, only 4 days overdue but the past few weeks blood pressure playing up, blood tests and monitoring every few days etc etc, very annoying and time consuming as hospital 50min drive away, BP up then down, protien in urine then none 2 days later, just very frustrating.
Anyhoo, today BP massively up so sent to hospital for more monitoring and they're keeping me in and inducing me, I'm just waiting to have the pessary as I type. Really really didn't want to go down this route with all the extra intervention that induction brings. Wanted as natural a birth as possible, water birth, nice and calm etc, have been trying to mentally prepare myself for weeks and visualise things positively, been reading Ina May Gaskin's "Natural Childbirth" book which is fantastic! But - I've also had the attitude of - anything can happen, go with the flow, which is kind of what I do in general anyway. So why do I feel so bummed out? Honestly felt like crying when speaking to the doctors and them telling me they want to get things going NOW. I still do feel like crying! I just want what's best for my baby, but what I don't want is tons of drugs, distress to the baby, forceps, episiotomies, a C section - a highly medicalised birth and getting bloody interfered with! My personal worst case scenario is slowly happening and I'm just so sad for some reason!
Can mumsnetters deliver and give me some positive induction stories please? I'm needing to get back into my positive frame of mind, I don't want any negativity slowing down this induction process, which of course you hear can last DAYS! Thanks in advance x

[Roseandmabelshouse]

But you will get a healthy baby and mummy at the end of it. Forget the rest!

[HandragsNGladbags]

My friend started induction and had a DS after 4 hours

I was induced due to waters going early and ended up with an epidural but it was a very clam birth. DD1 was perfectly fine.

[Mummyk1982]

Hi there, I totally sympathise with you! I too and 4 days over. Had planned home waterbirth using hypnobirthing techniques. Now due to a minor medical concern am not able to have homebirth or waterbirth.
Promised myself a non medicalised birth but already had a failed sweep, hot smother booked for Wednesday and failing that induction a week tomorrow.
I'm not in your boots at all, but share your attitudes towards birth and it seems we both had similar plans. I do find myself in tears at the prospect of things not happening naturally so I totally get how you must be feeling finding yourself at the start of induction. If there's a positive side to it maybe it's that you'll be well monitored as will baby and they wouldn't be recommending this for you unless they felt this is what's best for you both.
Thinking of you :-) x

[Bumply]

I was induced at 41 weeks
A couple of gels, a canula in the back of my hand just in case and that was it for intervention.
A lot of hanging around until things got going but then progressed as normal.

[LostinLocation]

hi pig,

please don't worry- it could all still go your way. I had an induction (was 12 days over). Had it on a Friday night and was told nothing was likely to happen for 12-15 hours. 2 hours later I was in full labour and 10 hours later I had my little girl.

No epidural, no major pain relief except for a little gas and air at crowning moment and only a midwife with me. It was a great experience. (I was really hoping for a non medical birth too). You hear a lot of scare stories but honestly it often works out fine. Good luck!

[HenriettaTurkey]

Pigallina, a very similar thing happened to me. I was induced at 40+8 due to crazy bp, protein etc diagnosed as pre-eclampsia. Had been planning a perfect hypno-birth.

Was given pessary at 7.30pm and DS arrived at 2.47am! First contractions were at 11.30pm. I had to be monitored due to DS's heartbeat dipping, but was still able to so hypno-birthing techniques & stay calm. It was so much better than I could've hoped.

Talk to them about what you want & if some things aren't possible, re-evaluate.

Holding your hand. You'll be amazing - and you'll get through it.

[GummiBear74]

Don't worry! Just because you're being induced, doesn't automatically mean you'll end up with loads of interventions. My labour started after one dose of gel, and I gave birth in the pool 6 hours later. No interventions, just a little bit of tearing.

Wishing you all the best.

[Pigallina]

Thank you everyone who has posted so far, I'm still waiting for the pessary, they've given me some drugs to lower my BP which worked, then it crept back up again so I got a 2nd dose just a wee while ago. Your words have definately helped, keep them coming! x

[StrangerintheNight]

If you are feelling sad then why not have a good cry? I cried buckets in the hospital as was so frustrated about the induction, and am sure the extra hormone surge helped, as went into labour half an hour later.

I'd also be optimistic, as it's not your first, that the pessary will be enough to trigger labour. I still did lots of walking round and listening to my hypno-CD, so try to keep mobile if possible. Good luck!

[IShallCallYouSquishy]

I had DS less than 2 hours after the drip went in

[Onelittlepiglet]

I was induced at 42 weeks - totally not what I wanted as I wanted to go to the midwife led centre and have a natural birth.

Had one pessary and contractions started within the hour and I gave birth about 8 hours later with only gas and air so all fine. It wasn't as bad as I thought at all. Induction doesn't have to be awful and I really hope it's all ok for you.

Hope it all goes well for you!

[everythinghippie29]

Went 2 weeks over so was induced! I was devastated as had planned a very natural idealistic water birth. I was dreading it and read all of the negative things about induction and cried and cried...then cried some more.

I went in for it and started to contract a few hours after the first pessary. The contractions did come on strong and quickly after that and I went through to labour ward. I had gas and air and pethadine on request. I ended up having an emergency spinal and forceps delivery (something again, which terrified me!) Having said all of that, it was a reaaaaalllly positive experience. NOTHING went to plan but it all flowed and went by in a blur. I would say keep an open mind, don't worry too much about any particular 'plan'. It is so tough when you have your mind set on something or have an idea of how you expect your birth to be. I really feel for you because I know how scary the concept of induction is!

I can say though, it was nowhere near as awful as I expected it to be and I had a really good recovery time afterwards! I feel the induction went really well and I still feel very positive about it all! Next time, I'm not even writing a birthplan!

Good luck and congratulations! Your little one will be with you soon. How exciting.

[badidea]

I've had 2 inductions, first pregnancy was diagnosed with severe pre-eclampsia, was 39wks so they kept me in and induced me. I was a bit like you seem now, overwrought, not happy with it all, just wanted my hippy water birth and couldn't really adapt to it. I wont' lie to you, my crappy mental state made it so much worse. I had pessaries - 48 hours worth, my cervix was opened just enough to let them break my waters, waited an hour, no contractions so started on the drip. An hour later I was fully dilated and 90 minutes later I had a baby boy :-) (I'll gloss over the intense pain of that first hour, or the the fact that i ended up having diamorphine and slept through a lot of the pushing 90 minutes...)

2nd time round, was a voluntary induction (I was old, and had little confidence in my placenta...) Totally different, prepared for the inductions most of my pregnancy, though about my contractions, knew what I wanted (definitely didn't want to be bedridden, wanted to move about and didn't want to be too hampered by a CTG straight away).

Pessary for 24 hours, water broken, then put on drip, in labour for 9 hours and it was fantastic!. Barely felt the contractions for the first few hours, then they started to be more noticeable, but it was only the last hour that they were any kind of effort. Did the whole thing with no pain relief at all (not because I'm mad, but just because I felt really in control and didn't need it). Got myself another baby boy and it was brilliant not being drugged up and being really aware of pushing my boy out (first time round I slept between all the contractions after the diamorphine kicked in).

My advice woudl be stay positive, you can have a good labour when on the drip, some people have crappy inductions, but that's the same of natural labour, some births are hard, some are easy, you don't know what your'e going to get until you're there, but I do feel that a positive mental attitude will help you tremendously.

Good luck and hope your induction goes as well as my second one did :-D