Very anxious about induction at 37 weeks after previous caesarean/balloon induction (experiences please) /small baby/growth scan could be wrong???

Awww, brilliant to hear 🥰

congratulations xx

Congratulations, hope you're both doing ok. Speedy recovery!

Congrats! I had a similar situation in Feb, the balloon failed and I had a (very relaxed emergency) section booked in for the next day. Hope you are well looked after in the coming weeks and heal up quickly.

Congratulations, I hope you are recovering well. Did the baby end up as small as feared? I hope you both get home soon x

Congratulations that you’ve met your baby at last though. I hope you’re enjoying all the newborn snuggles 🥰

Hope your recovery is better than your other section and you and baby are doing okay.

I’m glad the drip is ok so far - sounds a bit like my second day after the gel. Fab news you’ve got to nearly 4cm! The end is near! I found it quite irritating from the end of day 2 that although my contractions on were long, very painful and I wasn’t getting much respite from them, they were probably “only” 3 in 10 minutes, so felt I wasn’t being taken particularly seriously (in terms of getting to the Labour ward) at that point. Lead midwife on that shift kept on saying how busy the Labour ward was, suggesting that walk-ins were getting priority and I wouldn’t get near the labour ward until I was 4cm, although I was desperate for gas and air, as paracetamol was doing sweet FA at that point!

Sorry, ignore the gel bit, sounds like given your progression that’s not needed either (unless it would speed up her head moving lower). Good luck!

@Yodellayhehooare they not offering the gel? Can you ask? In my trust the balloon is actually done as an outpatient appointment in antenatal outpatients, so they insert it, send you on your merry way, and you’re told to return 24 hours later (when you have a bed booked in antenatal), or earlier if it falls out sooner.

Have you been having contractions on the antenatal ward then? I’m sorry, that’s miserable if they get to the stage where it’s tricky to breathe through them without being noisy (when in a room with 5 other women who you’re trying not to disturb).

Hopefully they’ll find you’ve progressed enough to not need the drip.I declined the drip in the Labour ward and DD was born 5 hours later.

I had a very small baby, he was on the 2nd centile born at 39+3 weighing 5lb 13oz. His growth slow down wasn’t fully picked up in until very late in the pregnancy. Like you I was told I needed an urgent induction then waited 5 days for a bed! My waters actually broke when they examined me to check dilation. I was told baby may not tolerate the drip very well so I declined and had a csection.

I have recently had DS2 and they would not use the drip again in case of uterine rupture. I ended up in spontaneous labour anyway but had an emergency csection. It was a really difficult surgery due to my previous section and scar tissue. I don’t want to scare you but I’ve ended up with a bad injury and I am having to have further surgery soon (had DS2 in December). It would have been avoided if it wasn’t an emergency section as part of the problem was the rush to get baby out. I know it’s not what you wanted but have you considered requesting another elective?

Yes, I hope you’re over the other side or the end is in sight now! I think spending three days in antenatal (particularly on the third day as the contractions really ramped up) was the worst part of induction for me…

Hope it went well xxx

I was induced at 37+0
I had icp and was possibly developing hellp and severe fatigue which was causing me to lose weight I wasn't awake enough to eat properly. I was sleeping for about 18-20 h a day. At 36+3 my blood work got worse so they retested them are 36+5 with the plan of inducing me before I turned 38 weeks. These blood tests were worse so I was called in for induction. It was 36+6 by the time they got the results back. They didn't have room on the induction suite so they retested my blood work and they were no worse than the day before so they gave me a sweep to see if that would get things moving. I had been having contractions since 32 weeks and had had 2 preterm labour assessments. The sweep made them more regular and if I wasn't so poorly I would have given it more time to put me into labour naturally.

The preference for my health was a straightforward induction over a c section but a c section over a prolonged induction so the plan was to see if we could gently nudge my body into labour and let it do it's thing otherwise switch to a c section. Everyone was on board with the plan of me getting as much rest as possible through the labour process.

I was called to come to the induction ward at 3 and they retested my bloods as I was having low platelets and this could impact decisions during labour. They had me on the monitor for ages as he was occasionally having deceleration of his heartbeat during contractions. It was about 8pm that they put the pessetry in as they were also waiting to ensure there would be room in the delivery ward when I needed it. I had it for about 4h before it put me properly into labour so they removed it to avoid hyper stimulation. If I was on my feet i laboured ok but I still could only be awake for about an hour at a time so I had to keep lying down to nap. I got moved to the delivery ward, at 6 cm with bulging waters and it looked like things were going well but I ran out of energy and could no longer stand up and labour went backwards. 4h later I was 5cm and the waters were no longer bulging as the head had moved upwards with me lying down. They broke my waters and things accelerated, baby went into distress but I was able to deliver him an hour after my waters were broken. He was born with the cord tightly around his neck which was causing the distress. He was born blue but by 5 minutes ago post birth he had a perfect score.

We had issues with feeding for the first 36h as he was sleeping for 12h at a time as his blood sugars were too low. He had formula every 4h and as much breastmilk as i could manage and after that he was fine. Once we could maintain his blood sugars we solely breastfed.

My growth scans had him predicted to be about 5.5lb but he was actually 6lb12 dropping to 6lb4. He was only 1oz different to my daughter born at 38+6 however he was very very scrawny. He had tiny little legs and we needed to drop down to size 0 nappies. He pretty much slept 23h a day until his due date

Good luck! Hope all goes well

Just to add, I needed no interventions either! Even though I found pushing challenging - but that was probably more to do with the epidural than the induction - and they had the instrument tray out just in case, I didn’t need a ventouse, let alone a c-section, and I got away without stitches too!

I was induced (for advanced maternal age 🙄) at 39+4 this January. I wanted to try the balloon but my cervix was too tightly closed, so I went home to see if anything would happen in the next 24 hours (it didn’t) and came back the following afternoon (a Monday) to try the gel. I had two 1ml doses about 12 hours apart and it was fine in terms of not ramping up too fast, although I did specifically ask whether the second dose could stick at 1ml, as the contractions had started and I didn’t want to overstimulate (2ml for the second dose is possibly more standard?). The contractions got going stronger after the second dose. I was moved to the Labour ward (from antenatal) when I reached 4cm (this was about 4pm on the Wednesday afternoon). I was offered the drip, but again declined as I felt I was progressing enough from the gel still. I had an epidural and my daughter was born at 22.11.

I’d imagine that at 37 weeks it might be unlikely for them to be able to do the balloon, but you can always ask to try it first, and if it doesn’t work you can move into the gel. Good luck!

I was almost 40 weeks, so a bit further along than you are but he was fine and didn’t need any help with his breathing or anything. He struggled a bit to latch to feed at the start, because his mouth was so small but we got over that! They’d have induced me earlier I think but we didn’t know he was small until my midwife sent me for an extra scan.

Obviously you’re a bit earlier on that I was, but the balloon induction is meant to work better if you’ve had vaginal deliveries in the past, and because it’s not hormonal that’s probably better for you, as you’ve had a c section before.

I don’t know if any of that helps but I hope you manage to make a decision you’re happy with!