Induction. Share your experiences please

[lifeistooshort]

I am now 41 + 3 with no sign of that little baby of mine and am starting to think that I should get informed about induction. Please share your experience with me (warts and all). How were you induced, how long did it take for something to happen, was it horrendously painful, did you have pain relief, how did you feel afterwards etc etc... These are some of the questions I have but I am sure there is more. I would appreciate any information/nugget of advice

I was induced as alledgedly I was carrying a very big baby...

Pessary inserted at 2pm on a Tuesday, contractions began at 2am on the Wednesday. Went to 4cm with TENS machine and went in the bath on the ward with my book for a couple of hours!!

My waters were broked at 3am on Thursday...then I NEEDED an epidural as it really cranked up the level of pain, but getting the epidural was fine. In fact,once it was in I basically slept until it was time to push.

Unfortunately she was facing the wrong way so ended up with birth by Keillands Forceps (despite all the horror stories was all absolutely fine) and ended up with a 7lb baby girl.

Episiotomy healed like a dream, no pain from it whatsoever and home 2 days later.

Don't worry, induction isn't necessarily that bad!! I would do it all again tomorrow, really.

I was induced for both dd's.

DD1, 40+10, had pessary. Stayed in hospital overnight

The following morning they broke my waters. Was given a couple of hours to have a walk about and see if labour started. Then started drip.

Labour took about 10 hours (3 hours of pushing). No epi, a bit of g&a but it made me feel sick. Labour was painful but not unmanageable. Had 2nd degree tear. Didn't feel too confined and was able to walk about/change positions plenty.

DD2, 40+10, ultrasound showed no amniotic fluid so was sent straight down for induction. Had waters broken. Had mild contractions, but after a couple of hours started drip to augment labour.

Took about 6 hours. No epi. Had g&a while pushing. Brilliant midwife gave excellent direction on how to use it with the contractions. About 5 pushes and dd2 was born. Another 2nd degree tear.

Was a lot more confined with dd2 as had to wear heart monitor entire time, but could still change positions around the bed.

Am not planning any more dc's, so feel slightly disappointed that I've never managed to go into labour spontaneously. But had two relatively uncomplicated labours, so am very thankful for that (and my two gorgeous dd's of course!)

Personally I think it is better to be induced than risk your baby's health for the sake of going into labour naturally.

Good luck! Just remember, it doesn't matter quite so much how you give birth - it's the end result that matters .

Thanks you both. Did you have sweeps also before the pressaries or did they start you straight on the pressaries?

No sweep, just a pessary.

There had been talk of giving me a sweep the at the previous week's appointment at the clinic, but due to never seeing the same midwife twice this never actually happened.

I had sweep at 10pm, pessary at midnight (40 + 7 I think)
Contractions every two minutes by 1 am, waters broke naturally and 9cm dilated by 3.30am and healthy boy born at 5.45am.
Gas and Air only - painful but guess it is anyway... (first baby) Was so glad to have him safely out - in retrospect happy to have been induced and to have been in hospital, I was most concerned about him. It obviously worked well for me.
Best of luck to you!

hi,
I had a sweep at 36 weeks, was already 1cm dilated. Went home and went back to DAU the next day and was contracting, but not in labour . Waters broken at 1:15pm and hooked straight up to the hormone drip. 10cm dilated after 6 hours only allowed to push for 1 hour (back to back) then failed ventouse so ended up with forceps. It was all extremely quick but I think may be a bit different as you are a lot further along as I was!

Hi, I had a sweep at 40 weeks and another at 41 weeks both failed to start anything so I was induced at 42 weeks. Pessary was inserted at 6pm on Tuesday, contractions started at 8pm, waters broke on their own at 10pm. Continued to contract throughout the night, managing with a tens machine but at 6am on the Wednesday morning all contractions suddenly stopped and my baby's heart rate dropped. From then on I was continually monitored, stuck on a bed with the syntocinon drip and my blood pressure also being checked every half hour. At that point I realised I wasn't going to have the relaxed water birth I'd hoped for and went for an epidural!

The problem I had was that I wasn't dilating very quickly. So by 10pm that night I still wasn't fully dilated. In the end they took me to theatre for an assisted delivery. They had considered letting me try to push on my own but because the epidural had been inserted too far initially they were worried I'd start leaking spinal fluid through the dural tap if I pushed too hard.

Once in theatre baby had gone back to back so a ventouse was used to turn him and then he was finally delivered by forceps. Baby was left with a terrible plunger mark on his head and a cut under his eye, which has left a scar.

After all that I was left with an infected episiotomy wound and it took about 5 months for everything to get back to normal.

All sounds quite grim now that I'm writing it down but the hospital staff were amazing and if I had to go through the exact same labour tomorrow I would!

If you find yourself restricted to a bed once in delivery, attached to a hormone drip I would definitely recommend having an epidural. I know it's not the same for everyone but my contractions were ridiculously intense once the drip started, there's absolutely no way I could have managed on G&A for 16 hours.

Good luck with it all and just remember that as long as you and baby are OK in the end that's all that matters x

Thank you to all for sharing your experiences with me. Please keep them coming

I was induced at 39 weeks to due high BP & protein in urine.

Got the gel at 8pm, had horribly period-pain-like cramps all night. Was 3cm at 9am, so moved down to labour ward. Was a bit slow to progress, so in the afternoon I had my waters broken and was put on syntocinon drip (also got epidural at that point).

Gave birth at 10.17pm after just a few pushes and without any assistance.

Long and fairly boring labour, but I wouldn't call it a negative experience!

Hope you meet your baby v soon

Lifeistooshort, hello!! I disappeared from MN for a while so haven't caught up with you for ages.

Sorry to hear you are still waiting, you must be so fed up.

I don't know anything at all about induction but just wanted to see how you are getting on and wish you luck!

I had DD2 on 29th June so she was 4 weeks yesterday. She's lovely and so relaxed which makes a change from DD1.

Hope you are coping well in this heat xx

I was induced at 39 weeks due to previous big baby and this one showing big as well. I had a pessary at 4pm. Immediately, very strong contractions. Went down to labour ward, had some gas and air, stayed on my knees/all fours the whole time. About 9pm I got the urge to push, MW examined me, 10cms and ready to go. DD shot out fist-first (like Supergirl!) after 3 pushes, at 9.12pm. No tears, no trauma, perfect delivery in my eyes.
Good luck

Induced at 36+5. Gel applied to cervix at 10:30am - not much happened, a few period pain like contractions. More gel at 3:30pm - nothing. Fell asleep. Woke up at 5pm with big contraction, by 5:20pm contractions every minute lasting over a minute (!). Huge amount of pain - mw offered me a paracetamol . All started going wrong, baby's hb dropped (60 bpm) with every contraction - I was delirious with pain and threatening to jump out of window. Less than 1cm dilated and waters intact despite urge to push. By 6pm decision made to emcs. In to theatre at 7:51pm, son born at 7:59pm. I was still less than 1cm dilated. At around 6pm I was given something to temporarily stop the contractions to give my body a break.

They don't know what went wrong per se - but for me it was very frightening, my body was contracting for all its worth and telling me to push - yet the "door" was firmly slammed shut.

Apparently this can happen with induction - the gel/pessary may not work at the given dose for each and every woman. So they give you another dose - which for you is a total overdose - it's not an exact science - and then all hell breaks loose. I went from 0-60 in 20 minutes and it was very frightening.

Can I just say that I'm not actually normally a wimp with pain - something went wrong. But... all's well that ends well and within 3 hours of labour starting proper I had a son.

Induced at 39+5 due to high blood pressure. Had 3 sweeps in the previous week, none of which did anything.

First lot of prostin gel at 8am, did nothing. Second lot at 1pm , mild period-type contractions. 7pm waters broke and proper contractions started. Had pethidine and later an epidural. Got to 8cm before they realised dd was in distress so had an emergency c/s at 6am the following morning. Not a bad experience at all, knew likelihood of c/s was higher with induction. Chose to have elective c/s with dd2, born 2 wks ago.

Hi OP! I just wanted to let you know about my really good experience of being induced.

I was induced with my 2nd DC at 38 weeks as my DD suffered a shoulder dystocia at birth and they wanted to get DS out while he was smaller than DD was at birth. I was told it would take up to 2 days as I was 2 weeks early. I had a sweep and pessary at about 12pm and mild contractions started almost straight away. At 2pm I was hobbling on my crutches (SPD!) down the corridors and going up the stairs trying to get it all really going, 3pm I was back in my room and having a bath, 5pm I was 5cm and so I was taken to delivery suite shouting for my epidural , and at 5.36pm DS literally shot out, job done!!

It was more intense than my first labour, but that was probably because it was so quick and you don't get the natural build up like you do when you go into labour 'naturally'. I only had time for G&A and to be honest even though I was shouting for an epidural it was fine, and it was nice to be able to go straight in the bath afterwards and get cleaned up.

Good luck and let us know how you get on! x

I was induced as I have Hughes Syndrome so at 39 weeks they got me in. Had 24 hour pessary on the Monday and nothing happened, had the 6 hour pessary on the Tuesday morning at 11am and waters broke at 2pm. Sudden onset of labour, contractions every 2 mins lots of vomiting - quite scary!
Had drip at about midnight and decided to have epidural before that - good move as it turned out! Was ready to push at about 5.30am and went for about 3 hours before they realised she was back to back and might need a caesarean. She was born with ventouse and forceps at 9.30am. Think with anyone without blood complications would have been a c/s but they didn't want to cut me open. Episiotomy healed so well i could barely find the scar when I checked the other day!

I was induced with DS1 at 42 weeks, after a sweep at 41 weeks that did nothing. I had to go into hospital at about 9.00 at night, which being a complete novice at the time, I found very wierd! They used a pessary, and by about 5.00 the next morning I was using the toilet alot! I thought I had a stomach upset, apparantly it was the beginning of labour. Although I didn't get that with ds2 who wasn't induced. I had to have my waters broken with the thing that looks like a crochet needle, that hurt quite a bit, despite them saying it wouldn't. After that, everything was very straightforward, and baby was born about 6 hours later, and I just used gas and air. I found the worst thing was them constantly wanting to have me on the monitor, but as ds was turning the right way round during labour, I found I naturally wanted to contort myself into various different positions to feel as comfortable as possible. I was grateful when they actually let me start listening to my body and took the monitor off.

All in all, it was a good experience, and for the last week of my pregnancy, I did enjoy knowing when I was going to be having the baby.

My induction for DC3 was amazing. I was induced at 38+2 due to GBS and a fast 2nd labour. I went in at 8am, they started the IV antibiotics immediately and I was given an epidural before they even started the induction. According to my consultant he doesn't do pessaries so my waters were broken, I was given a huge sweep and I went straight onto the drip. The epidural didn't work on one patch so I felt like I had quite bad period pain, the type where you think you ought to take something for it when you've got a moment. The anaestetist kept topping it up and eventually it worked fully by which point I said to the midwife, "you'll think I'm mad but I think that I want to push" and after a quick check I started pushing and DC3 was born at 11.40am, 2hours 40 minutes from the beginning of the induction. I had a tiny graze and that was it. Absolutely fantastic experience and if I were to have another, which I'm 150% not, then I'd go for induction without hesitation.

It was truly amazing.

I was induced at 40 + 3 due to having OC. Found the whole process to be very positive. Painful but positive .

Here is what happened to me:

Saturday 1.30pm - admitted to ward.
4.30pm - Prostaglandin pill inserted, hooked up to minitor to monitor DD's heartbeat.
9.30pm - started to feel period like pain. Most likely caused by prostaglandin. Uncomfortable all night. Put on tens machine as soon as pain started, had bath. The pill or pessary can cause pain but this does not always mean you are in labour, though you may think that you are.
Sunday 7.30am - internal examination. Cervix had softened but not opened. Second pill inserted and hooked up to monitor.
11.30am - contractions started, waters broke.
4.30pm - given bed on labour ward. Gas and air only at this stage. Stayed on birthing ball apart from during examinations. Hooked up to Oxytocin drip. 3cm dilated at this point. Drip makes contractions come faster so pain did increase quite quickly.
8pm - was given a diamorphone injection. This did not take the pain away but took the "edge" off contractions. Taken off drip as DD showing signs of distress - heartbeat dropped a couple of times.
11pm - was given diamorphine injection. 5cm dilated. Put back on Oxytocin drip.
Monday 2.45am - internal examination. Still 5cm dilated, decision made to give c-section due to my labour not progressing fast enough and due to my DD continuing to show signs of distress.
3.10am - my DD was born!

Despite having an emergency section in the end, I can honestly say that I had a brilliant experience.

I stuck to some elements of my original birth plan - I stayed active throughout, apart from during internal examinations. I used a birthing ball and upright chair when I got tired - I was starting to fall asleep on the birthing ball so for my own safety I was transferred to an upright chair. Once on the drip your baby has to be closely monitored. A monitor was inserted into me onto my DD's head and this allowed me to stay upright. TBH I found it too painful lying down.

I was offered an epidural. Many people advise to accept an epidural prior to being put on the drip as the pain can come quite fast after this, but I did not want an epidural and found the pain to be manageable without one. I had diamorphine twice and this took the edge away at the height of my contractions.

I found my tens machine to be very effective. It gives some distraction to the pain.

Induction can be quite a long process. I needed two prostaglandin pills to be inserted (some hospitals use a pessary, both are inserted internally), some women need only one, others need up to 6 (so I was told). Be prepared for this. My DH was only allowed to stay with me during visiting times until I was on the labour ward so have somthing to keep you occupied. I too my ipod and a book with me. Obviously once the contractions start these were ditched but up until then they helped to pass the time when my DH was not with me.

Good luck!

Hi to all and a big thank you to all of you who posted. Quick update, Theo was born on Wed (the day I started the thread!) at 23.55. We didn't need the induction after all but I am sure others will find this thread useful. Thanks so much for sharing your experiences with me though

Congratulations on the birth of Theo!