to ask you about your experiences with induction?

[BombayMarina]

Looks like I'm going to be induced this week. I'm nervous, haven't been to any birth classes, don't know much about induction, and read one post on here about it which totally scared me as everyone was talking about how awful it was...

Anyone got any honest (but not traumatic) stories of induction?

Keeping my fingers crossed that at 37+2 I miraculously go in to labour before the induction!

[Amanduh]

Nobody can tell you. Just like natural labour.. it might be painful. It might be not too bad. You might want all the drugs. You might not. It might be slow. It might be long!
I had the pessary and was in active labour 2 hours later. (Horrific labour and birth but that wasnt due to the induction, it was due to a big headed and stubborn baby and crap staff and negligence) Honestly if I was doing ir again I wouldn’t have a worry about the induction at all. Everyone I know has had no problems with them. You’ll be fine, good luck!

[Crunchymum]

• I was pushing for 10 minutes but when baby came her head and body came in one push (usually you push out head first and then body!!)

[Vanillaradio]

At 37 weeks there is a higher chance that you will end up with a c section so prepare for this as a possibility.
I was induced at 37 weeks, 4 days and two pessaries later I was only 1cm dilated and I had a c section as they were unable to break my waters!
On the plus side, this was absolutely fine and I recovered very quickly.
As far as an epidural goes, I was advised by midwives that the drip can produce very strong contractions so might be an idea to have one as soon as it went in (never got that far!) I probably would had one tbh!
I was in a room with three other women, one was waiting induction, one an emcs for a poorly baby and one being monitored for reduced movements. We all ended up chatting and were doing our moaning together! I met one of the babies after and saw pics of another (doing well in nicu).
Good luck.

[Crunchymum]

Induced with my 3rd (so I will caveat by saying having had 2 vaginal deliveries before would have helped)

Examined, cervix closed. Pessary in, started cramping almost immediately but was bearable. Had 22 hours of this.

Then had one proper contraction and that was it. Labour "proper" commenced and baby was there within 90 minutes. Took an hour to get someone to confirm I was in labour (lots of emergencies and I'd been moved from a delivery suite to a side room as I wasn't in labour). When someone did examine me I was 5cm with bulging waters, waters went everywhere, baby arrived 20 minutes after that. Head and body in one push!!

[bluechameleon]

I had an induction because my waters broke but then I didn't go into labour. Had pessary, nothing happened, they went to take it out 24 hrs later and it wasn't there! Put on drip, had epidural put in at the same time because I wasn't going to be able to cope with the pain of lying on my back due to PGP. Got to fully dilated after about 22 hours. Pushed for an hour but no progress. Had attempt at ventouse then EMCS. So DS was born 48 hours after the pessary was allegedly put in. Not the birth of my dreams but we got there in the end.

[Kaystar89]

I got induced at 2pm and baby was here by 5pm! That was second baby and I was 2 weeks over so I think I was ready anyway but it was nowhere near as bad as I was anticipating. I was absolutely dreading it! Also I was in a private room until I was moved to a delivery suite. One negative is I did have very intense contractions and they had to give me an injection to lessen them a little but I would take that over my first non induced labour any time. You'll be fine!!! Xx

[BombayMarina]

Thanks everyone for the responses! I'm not going to lie and say I'm still holding out hope that everything happens 'naturally' (I hate that term, I'd still like to think the birth was natural even if induced!). I'm getting more and more nervous as I know it could happen as soon as tomorrow!

[CheetahMama]

I’ve had one induction and one spontaneous and one thing I’d say about induction is that you have pain relief from the start. My first induced labour was less painful in some ways because I had gas and air quite early on, while I arrived at hospital at crunch time with DD2 and had to fanny about in the waiting room for an hour with contractions and a failing tens machine. Not fun!
Other than, induced labour was surreal more than anything else. Did end with EMC but at 42 +2 I was relieved.

[Scoleah]

Hello!
I got Induced with my 2nd. 39weeks.
Pessary at 7:30
Contractions started by 8:30
Taken to Labour ward at 10:45 as was 5cm Dilated
Waters Broken at 00:05
Baby Born at 00:10

Goodluck with the Birth! Everyone is Different but I hope you have a Great experience! 

[blackteasplease]

Completely fine both times. Second time was very quick - 3 hours from pessary to birth. Didn't need any drugs beyond gas and air.

Can be just as easy as spontaneous labour so try not to worry.

[CuppaSarah]

Pessary in at 11 am. Instant mild contractions. Chilled out, ate, napped and chatted with my husband. At 8pm I was 4cm, so off to delivery ward. Wanted an epidural as I had an unrelated pelvic injury, got it straight away. Pain was entirely managable though before the epidural and no worse than my spontaneous labour.

[Sohardtochooseausername]

Ps good luck

[Sohardtochooseausername]

I had an induction. It was fine. I found it very helpful to accept what I couldn’t control and just go with the flow. I listened to lots of music, chatted, relaxed. It was a far cry from the beautiful home birth I’d planned - but it was a positive experience all the same.

[AllyMcBeagle]

Oh and OP you might be interested in the (slightly out of date but still useful stats here):

www.nct.org.uk/professional/research/maternity%20statistics/maternity-statistics-england

You'll see that around a quarter of births are via induction so really it's pretty common.

You may also be interested to see the stats on c-sections and instrumental deliveries so that you are prepared for the fact that you may need one of those as they are fairly common also.

[AllyMcBeagle]

I had an induction a week and a half ago. My waters had already broken but I was not having very regular contractions and they were quite weak, so they induced me due to risk of infection.

I had the postglandin gel at lunchtime on Thursday. I was put in a very nice private room with things like a birth ball and I set up a speaker with my music. The plan was to stay there until I was in active labour and I think ~8cm dilated and then transfer to the delivery suite.

The plan changed because I found the induced contractions very strong and painful. They did not feel anything like the natural irregular contractions I had been having. So I ended up transferring to the delivery suite at about 2cm dilated within a couple of hours of having the gel.

I continued on gas and air until around 7cm dilated (I guess at around 8pm) at which point the contractions were painful enough that the gas and air wasn't enough and I had an epidural. Things were much better with the epidural although they did need to replace it and keep topping it up.

I was fully dilated and pushing by about 4am. I pushed for about an hour and then they decided to do an emergency c-section as the baby's heart was slowing on each push. It turned out afterwards the cord was wrapped around his neck a couple of times. The c-section was actually a really positive experience and it only took them a few minutes to get the baby out and the recovery hasn't been too bad so far.

So not traumatic - although I think it helps that the baby came out healthy so it is easy to forget any painful parts of the process. The pain was bad at times just before switching to gas and air and then later just before having the epidural and when the epidural needing redoing or topping up, but I suppose they don't call it 'labour' for nothing. So I think I would say be prepared to ask for pain relief including an epidural if you need one because it makes things so much more bearable. It doesn't make you a wimp.

You might want to check with your hospital about where you would be after they induce you. I was really surprised at how lovely the rooms were in mine and they only put you in a shared room if they have run out of the private rooms which they said isn't common.

Good luck anyway. It's all worth it in the end (I've just been up doing a feed of my beautiful baby).

[newyorkartist]

Better than feared. Baby was a very unstable lie at 38/40 and after a few days of humming and haaing abut whether to do a C section, they decided to discharge me. That might have been OK except that in order to try and sell me the C section they'd already told me I could have a cord prolapse at any moment/medical emergency/yadayada, so by that time I really didn't want to go home, an hour away from the hospital. As a compromise, they said I could stay in if I had ARM. Wasn't crazy about it but had two older kids to think of and really needed to get on and get home.

ARM at about 11am iirc, contractions followed fairly swiftly but not unmanageable, although I had a few tricks by #3. Was advised to stay mobile so forced myself to walk up and down the corridors for a few hours, which made contractions hard and fast and was very, very boring. By late afternoon I was about to succumb to pethedine when a birthing pool came free, which I jumped at. Baby was born drug free about 7pm. So about 8 hours all in, which was a vast improvement on #1 & #2. Not a bad memory at all.

Good luck, OP!

[MustBeDreaming]

I had one that didn't work and ended in an emergency cesarean for failure to progress, and then another one that did work. The second was much more bearable due to having a nice midwife and my DH being bossier and ordering them to hurry up with giving me more painkillers when they were messing around not sorting it out! I'd personally recommend eating calorific, slow energy foods beforehand and trying to be well rested and keep calm as I think my first one failed because I was so exhausted, hungry and scared.

I tried some of the exercises on the spinning babies website which are supposed to get the baby into a good position (and helped me to feel calmer and more positive during the induction as I felt I had some control - the placebo effect is a powerful thing!) and I brought a lot of stuff with me the second time to make me feel calmer - a favourite pillow, music, lavender and clary sage oil, wore my own nightshirt and refused to be in a hospital gown, asked for dim lighting etc.

Having two birth partners, entertainment and some spare clothes are useful as it can be a long process.

Ask what the plan is beforehand as there are several stages / types of induction. You may want to write a birth plan and any preferences for if you end up with an emergency cesarean.

AIMS have some good information, e.g www.aims.org.uk/shop/item/inducing-labour-making-informed-decisions which is also available as an ebook. :)

[CardsforKittens]

I had three inductions and they were all very straightforward. Quite fast though once labour started: the longest was just under four hours and the quickest was 90 minutes. I did all three on gas and air and everything went like clockwork. So I had a fairly easy time of it. I hope you do too OP.

[GreenLantern53]

meant 3* wasnt induced with my oldest.

[GreenLantern53]

i would say they are quite common. ive been induced 4 times.

[AlocAcoc]

Induction at 37+6
Pessary @ noon
Waters broken @ 1am
Contractions started @ 2am
Laboured in birthing pool
Baby born @ 4am

[TeeniefaeTroon]

• by not my

[TeeniefaeTroon]

Just to add, my local hospital doesn't do epidurals so I booked into another hospital 60 miles away just to get one. I was too late with my first so when I had my second I knew that I could cope so just stuck with the local hospital. Don't be put off my horror stories, it may not be as bad as you think. Yes it's painful but just get through one contraction at a time. X

[bellajay]

I had quite a protracted induction, baby just wasn’t ready to come out really but they suspected he was on the larger side. He was 10lb 2oz and tbh I wouldn’t fancy pushing out anything bigger so I’m glad I was induced.

I spent three days in the maternity assessment centre with the pessaries, gels etc but to be honest that wasn’t so bad as I’m quite good at entertaining myself. I read books, watched films on a tablet, went for walks round the hospital grounds. Basically enjoyed some quiet time, the calm before the storm! My husband went off to work as nothing much was happening and we wanted to have more time together with the baby afterwards.

Eventually I was moved over to the delivery suite and my waters broken, and given the drip. Contractions came thick and fast, I managed a couple of hours without pain relief, a couple of hours on gas and air and then I needed the epidural. I had made my peace with that in advance. It was the right choice as it was still another 12 hours before I fully dilated so I was able to rest and even get a little sleep before the pushing stage.

We ended up in theatre and I had forceps and an episiotomy. This was all really down to the size of the baby, after an hour or so of pushing, it didn’t look like he was moving and they wanted to be ready to do a section if needed. Presumably this is less likely to apply in your case.

All in all, it was a long way from what I had envisaged but I feel positive about my birth now and happy that all the decisions made were the right ones for me and the baby.

For me, research and preparation were the key to feeling in control and positive.

[BombayMarina]

Induction is really common then! I sound so naive but before I got pregnant I didn't even know it was a thing!

Fairly sure I'll be falling asleep soon but will absolutely look forward to reading responses in the morning.

Thanks a lot!