humpty - just pmed you. Was hoping you might either be (a) asleep or (b) in labour. I'm neither, btw!
I've just pmed you my details and sent on some info I found re induction that I'm going to ask about. Hope it might be helpful
I had to go on the drip after getting to 7cms at home and after being in the MLU for another 5 hours with DS as everything just ground to a halt due to his position. I eventually had a low forceps delivery
One thing I am holding onto is that (a) the disc were lovely and once I embraced the drugs, 'twas lovely! I had something called remifentanil which wears off more quickly than an epidural as they hoped that maybe a dose of that and the drip for a bit might get things going again (sadly not). It's self-administered and I was absolutely off my face but in a lovely way. I felt like a very happy drunk and DH said I was hilarious in that inrefused to surrender the button thing when it was time for pushing and he and the midwife had to wrestle it off me. I also had some lovely sleep too as was exhausted by that stage.
Re the forceps delivery, I really did not want that but as it was low forceps, I've not had any damage and the stitching I got for my episiotomy in the theatre was excellent - far better than that of my friends on the MLUs - some of whom didn't get very good pain relief.
I also recovered far more quickly than my friends who had had sections too so I'm glad DH consented (I was off my face at that time!) to the forceps. He insisted on speaking to the obstetrician until he was quite happy before making a decision and she was very happy to answer all of his questions as we werent energency, emergrncy, I was just knackered vI think the key one he asked was how confident the obs was re the forceps as he didnt want me to have a failed trial of forceps plus a section. He also made sure that it was just the low forceps she was using as its the high (and sometimes medium ones) that can cause the most damage potentially. She said she was very confident with the forceps as DS' head was practically hanging out and she just needed to tuck his chin in rather than him having his head flexed back - which was true
Sorry - that was a total ramble but just wanted to say in all seriousness that if yiu get DH (or you, if you're in a fit state), primed with the questions, an induction and even a forceps/vont birth needn't be as horrid as you might think. And I say that as someone who on their birth plan had NO FORCEPS!
The only other thing I would say is to refuse the drip point blank until you have the pain relief sighted and up and running and you're sure it's working. I've heard some horror stories about people being told they'll just start the drip and then the anaesthetist will be up in 30 mins etc. Not on as the contractions are pretty intense from the word go. DH was also v good at getting that sorted too and noticed when my cannula had fallen out too midwife hadnt! so got then anaesthetist back quickly to sort that later on