Hi! I was induced at 37 weeks due to high blood pressure, in April.
I went in on the Sunday, was kept in overnight due to blood pressure. On the Monday, the doctors decided to induce me.
6am Tuesday morning, I was examined, had a sweep, and the first Propess was inserted. By about lunchtime I was having mild cramps. This was then taken out at 6pm, and a new one was put in.
6am Wednesday morning I was examined, was now 1-2cm dilated, Propess taken out and a Prostin tablet was put in. Spent the day walking around and bouncing on a birthing ball. By 12pm I was ready to have my waters broken as they showed no sign of going by themselves, but there was no room on the labour ward for me.
Spent that night having mild to moderate cramps and a lot of discharge, mucus plug went as well as some other discharge, but I didn't mention it to them (this is where I will say, if you do get discharge, get them to check it!!)
By 12pm the next day there was a bed ready on the labour ward. Just before I went, I had to call the midwife to the loo because there was an odd colour on the pad in my pants, they thought it was meconium and took me straight through to labour ward. That's where they found out my hind waters had already gone, they broke my waters, got me on the drip to speed things up because they had no idea how long my hind waters had been leaking, and away we went. They weren't going to examine me for ages, the midwife clocked off her shift and expected to see me still there in the morning.
The drip was amazing; it went in at about 4pm and was increased every half an hour. The contractions sped up and were pretty intense but I have nothing to compare it against as DD is my first, but it was neither unbearable nor more intense than I imagined labour would be. I got through it at first with paracetamol and staying as active as possible (I was still able to get up and move about until they had to put a clip on DD's head because she was too low for the heartbeat monitor). I then had some diamorphine into my leg, which did nothing for the pain but helped me sleep in between contractions, and gas and air which got me through the contractions themselves. I could still feel everything though, which was great.
By 11pm they were still expecting me to be far away from any action happening, and were starting to discuss a c-section just because I didn't seem to be progressing, when I told them I needed to poo. They told me to poo, I told them it was stuck, so they examined me, and found out I was 10cm dilated and the head was starting to come out best feeling in the world! The drip is fantastic.
So three pushes later and DD was born. It was an amazing experience; I felt in control and aware of everything at all times, they checked with me before they did anything, there was no pressure to do it without pain relief but also no pressure to have an epidural - I know a lot of people get an epidural as soon as the drip goes in, but really I didn't feel I needed one, not even at the pushing.
Take plenty of reading material, a tablet if you have one, etc - the wait to be at a stage where they can get you to labour ward can be long, or it can be done in the blink of an eye!
Oh and don't worry about having your waters broken. I was offered gas and air but just wanted them to get it out of the way, and it felt just like a normal examination, followed by peeing myself without any effort to do so. It's a warm feeling and a bit weird, but wasn't painful in my experience.
Sorry about the essay... the basic gist of my post is that it was a great birth, I loved it!