Questions for midwife pre induction?

[frannie2013]

Hi all,
I've got a second sweep tmr (fri) with an induction booked for Sunday if no progress when I'll be 41+5. I'm not looking forward to the induction much... I thought I'd write a list (memory is shot!!) of questions for the MW tomorrow. Here they are:

What's my bishops score?
Can partner stay with me in induction 24 hours?
Can the drug for the induction be given slowly? To help build it up?
Can additional monitoring be done first?

Any others to add? All ideas very welcome!! Thanks x

[ILiveOnABuildsite]

Not so much a question but something for you to consider. You may recommended by midwife to have an epidural early in the labour as induction labours tend to start quickly and strongly (when they eventually start which can take a while - it did for me). In my case I followed midwife advice as it was my first and didn't know any better and for me that was huge mistake, the epidural made me very sick and affected my contractions which stopped not long after I became fully dilated and I really struggled to push my dd out. In the end had all sort of intervention and suffered from shock afterwards. Also I was stuck on my back for the whole night as labour progressed because of the epidural and I think it really slowed down the progress.

I don't want to scare you and put you off epidurals, I think when used properly they do a great job! I just think that the advice to have it at the very beginning of the labour when you don't even need it yet was not a great one in my case.

Hth

[Gumnast2014]

Why do you need to know your bishops score?

I am just going to try And trust the professionals

[Lozmatoz]

When I was induced I was given the pessary first. Not have as intrusive as I hear the drip can be if pessary doesn't work. I could walk around, just had gas and air and I had a nice straight forward birth. Maybe just ask the full procedure in your hospital.

[frannie2013]

Hi - thanks for that. All useful to think about.I'll defo ask what the procedure is.

The Bishops Score - i think - can indicate whether an indicate whether an induction will be successful - ie worth it - or whether it won't work well and therefore lead to more interventions. If anyone has any more info on it that would be handy.
I think there is lots of merit in trusting the professionals but equally I want to be as informed as possible and you might see from other threads that some HCPs just seem hell bent on getting the baby out no matter what and for no medical reason at all!

[Shelduck]

Hi frannie,

I may be too late, but just in case anyone else is after similar advice...

Following on from what ILiveOnABuildsite said, I would ask about pain relief options in general. I was induced on the maternity ward rather than the delivery suite (not sure if that's standard) and they didn't move me to delivery suite until I was 7cm dilated. However, before that point I was having very strong very frequent contractions (45 secs long every 90 secs) for about 4 hours. But because I was on the maternity ward, their rules said that all they could offer me was paracetemol and codeine. Had no idea that was how it was going to pan out, so I wish I'd known that in advance.

And yes, definitely ask if your partner can stay with you.

Best of luck!

[frannie2013]

Thanks! That will be handy to know when I'm there. The MW said that if I'm in too much pain to ask them to stop the drip, give me an epidural, start drip again. I don't want an epi but............

[Pico2]

I had quite the opposite experience - I asked for an epidural before the drip and was dissuaded by the MW. That turned out to be a mistake as I wanted one pretty soon and it took ages to get it.

If I could go back in time, I would ask about the option of a CS if pessaries/gel don't get labour going as they didn't do anything for me, so in the end they just hooked me up to a drip and broke my waters with a not very favourable cervix and it all went a bit down hill from there.

[Boofuls]

Just to ask, if you find out Bishops Score how will that influence your decision on induction? Only asking because I was induced with DS and was never told my score. I had 2 pessaries and 4 days later nothing was happening! Ended up having EMCS at 42+1 for failure to progress and DS getting distressed. Had I known in advance that induction was unlikely to work I'm not sure what the other options are besides waiting to see what happens?

[frannie2013]

Hi Boofuls, I THINK that if its 8+ then the induction is likely to be positive as things are 'ripe' - it's a bit of a combo of 4 or 5 different indicators (I looked it up on wiki). If its below that then basically the body isn't ready and induction is more likely to fail to proceed, hence c-sec will be required. If that's the case the the options - I think - would be skip induction & go to c-sec or continued monitoring (+ more sweeps?) for additional day/s to see if anything happens 'naturally' whilst making sure baby (& mummy!) are safe & well.
I think the problem is as there is no 'test group' no one ever knows what would have happened if...
I've NO medical education and this is my first baby so I'm not saying I'm right, but I've done some reading (more than just wiki!) and spoken to lots of people/read about their experiences and there seems to be a tendency to get those babies out ASAP regardless. Clearly I'll be talking to my midwife + doctor but I want to be able to ask questions, understand the answer & make sure I'm not being fobbed off - if possible. I'm not saying that happens all the time, everywhere, but I go know it can happen, anywhere. Also the hospital I'm going to is massively under resourced which is not going to help, though I've heard really good things about it from people who have had their kids there so I'm not too worried.

[Boofuls]

Thanks frannie, sounds like you're well prepared! I'm having ELCS this time as want to avoid another lengthy induction - hope you get a favourable score!

[squizita]

FRannie re the Bishop's score - make sure you look up British/EU sites re Bishop's score and induction info. American ones say things like if it's under 8 at THIRTY SIX WEEKS they'll induce (because many ObGyns there recommend inducing before due date and view that as the safety cut-off unlike the rest of the world!). I saw one of those medical QA sites where the question was "I am 37 weeks and just want this baby out, should I ask for induction?" and the money-grabbing ObGyn wrote "if you were a patient of mine yes - after 38 weeks the risk of pre eclampsia and still birth rise steeply..."
The timings are so wild they can be scary if you're overdue (they scared me when I wasn't!!) and seem only to apply to the USA: guidance in UK and the rest of the world is more like what we experience.