Induction-pessary/gel.....contractions question.

[rascals]

Hi,
I was wondering...there are quite a few threads on here about induction being more uncomfortable /painful cos you don't get slow build up that you would going into labour naturally.When people say that do they mean when the pessary failed to get things happening & they were put on drip that contractions were full on or was it after pessary inserted.
You see I thought pessary was tried first & if that got things going it was just like a normal progression of labour after that(i.e slow build up mimicking natural labour,but if pessary didnit work then drip was used & that was when you kinda go from nothing to contractions very quickly.(& more painful)
Also was mentioned by a health visitor that I know that pessary doesn't have high success rate & many mums go on to need a drip....sorry I can't remember the name of the drug they give you to get the contractions going.
Anyway just curious as just gone overdue & induction is being mentioned,this is my 4th preg. but I've not had to be induced before.Thanks...R.

[Purplepolecat]

I was induced with the pessary and started getting mild contractions straight away. They built up slowly and got much stronger after they broke my waters. I didn't need the drip but ds started registering a distressed heart rate after 12 hours so I ended up having an ecs. It wasn't so bad but hope things work out better for you.

[iMum]

Gel stuff did bugger all for me, they broke my waters as early as pos and got me on the drip, only when the drip was cranked right up did things start to happen and yes bloody fucking panful-all 3 times!

[MrsMattie]

Gel didn't work for me (five doses over 4 days!) and I wasn't able to have the drip as I hadn't dilated at all (think you need to have dilated a bit or at least 'softened' and 'effaced' or whatever they call it, before they will use a drip)...

I think when people talk about induction starting things off very quickly they are talking about the drip...

[lilymolly]

gel worked for me- waters broke after about half and hour, then contractions kicked in- I needed oxytocin drip though later cos I stopped contracting
Pain was immense and had epidural at 4 cms!!

[lulumama]

the gel is to soften the cervix and ripen it , hopefully to start it dilating and to open it enough to break your waters. it can trigger contractions too. if it doesn;t then breaking waters can trigger them. if that doens;t, or the ctx are weak , irregular or not dilating you, then the syntocinon drip is usually put in to move things along.

it can be more intense, and can be more hard to cope with , but if you can be mobile, upright and able to move around as you feel you need to, that is really helpful.

and of course you can have pain relief too!

as a first port of call, you can request a sweep at 41 + weeks if it is not offered. taht can often help move things without all the other stuff

[Josephnia]

I had a couple of sweeps which did nothing and the first attempt with the gel didn't work either. The next day they had another go about 9.30 and started having contractions about an hour later. Having nothing to compare it to, I couldn't say if the contractions were stronger. Tens machine did nothing so they gave me a couple of pethidine shots during the afternoon. Dh says I was snoring but I swear I didn't sleep . I wasn't dilated much though and about 6 they recommended a bath. This was excellent and really eased the contractions (maybe not a good thing though looking back) which I certainly appreciated. Finally took me to the labour suite about 9pm when I was starting to get really uncomfortable and started on the G&A. They broke my waters and put me on an oxytocin(?) drip but I was off with the fairies by then and don't remember which came first. I kept asking for an epidural though MW said I was doing fine and didn't need one - though I remember being most pissed off that I wasn't allowed a cup of tea when they had several so i think I probably coped quite well just on g&a.

[NoNickname]

I had a pessary at about 10 at night, then another about 4 in the morning. My waters had already broken, and were "dribbling", but the contractions broke either another set of waters, or broke them more (??), at about 6 in the morning. The result was that ds's head moved down very quickly and forcefully. The contractions from then on were unbearable. No slow build up at all - just full-on.

[MKG]

I had Cervadil for 12 hours overnight, and it didn't cause any contractions, but it get my cervix ready to go. Then I had my waters broken and a Pitocin drip was started.

To be fair, my contractions didn't start right away in fact I didn't feel anything until about 5 hours into the induction and it was next to nothing. It was when I was about 9 hours in that I was in "active" labor. I was lucky in that I did have a nice slow build up. In fact there was no difference in my natural labor and induction.

The worst part of being induced is being on monitors the whole time, so try to put it off as long as possible. Many people say that if you're induced you should have an epidural, that is totally your choice. I got through mine without one.