9 days overdue-How do I avoid the induction planned in 3 days time?!

[TwoPeasOnePod]

Ok I'll try and keep it short,(unlike my goddamn pregnancy!! } I'm now 9 days overdue and refused sweep at term +7 to give it chance to get started without interference, and have been booked in for induction when I will be 40+12. But I don't want to be induced either..At last appointment, baby was fine and me too, but I was wondering where I stand on refusing induction? Anyone got experience of going this overdue and asking for scans/monitoring of baby in order to wait till it (hopefully) happens naturally?

Basically I am scared of having the induction, sounds so forceful and unnatural and like I would be in horrible pain and out of control, but also don't want to put my baby at any risk by going over 42 weeks. Im also concerned after reading NICE guidelines saying 22% of inductions lead to EMCS?! If I read it correctly. Which seems horribly high risk. Ive got three days before the induction is booked, I'm now thinking I will ring midwifes Monday morning and ask for a membrane sweep. And then hope labour comes on naturally. ANY advice gratefully received, very nervous mummy here! x

Do you mind me asking why you refuse dthe sweep?

I was the same with DS1. Just said 'no'. They let me extend to 42+14. DS started by himself a few hours beforehand. But, TBH, with DD1, I was keen to get on with it and would have let them get me started at 39+1 if they were offering. I can't imagine why I was so keen to keep heaving that huge bump around for an extra 3 weeks :o

BTW, c-sections really aren't that bad really, either.

Am 9 days over too and had my sweep today but nothing cooking at all. Am booked for induction on Wednesday and think it will not happen before then. Cervix not ripe and feeling very peed off as was induced with number 1 due to prolonged rupture of membranes and ending up with a long and painful labour which had every intervention apart from c section.

Ah, fair enough. I mean, I was odue with dc2 and had a sweep, and mw (who we did know as a friend so it made it a bit more bearable ) (although don't know why i worried about it when was hoo-ing and moo-ing later ) did explain that it will only work if your cervix is getting 'ripe' as she put it! just helps it along a bit?

Mind you, I am the woman who was odue with dc1 so when dh went out for g=curry i did tiny little tip toe jumps 100 tims, and lo, a few hours later, dc1 turned up (as did all the toast i crammed down before went to hospital!)

so, if you don't want sweep, do lots of tiptoe jumps?

(yousaidit runs off before medical person with lots more common sense runs after her with a big butterfly net)

This time I am not going to allow it to get to forceps and will be going for section.

I have been induced twice,

both times because my waters broke and then my body refused to start contracting. Once befroe term and once when I was overdue.

sometimes it is what has to happen, and you just need to go with it. Birth experiences cannot really be that controlled IME

it was not that bad I coped with it all and although I don't have any experience of going into labour spontaneously I can't imagine it would be that much more pleasant.

Will get jumping then! Sounds good and fed up with curry and pineapple.

Just say no - or don't go. Have faith in your body and your baby - they can all work together without intervention! It's a good thing!

yousaidit i refused the sweep for two reasons really, one that I thought a week overdue is nothing in the grand scheme of things, and two I couldnt get anyone to look after my three year old DD who was there with me, thought it wasnt the best thing with her present.

I will try the tiptoes jumping thing [grin}, have had a really long walk today too so fingers crossed.
And bubbahubba- thats my instinct, to not go, I think Ill ask for the sweep on mon or tue, see how ripe my cervix is or isnt, then say I want more time to wait provided baby is undistressed, because everything about an induction feels wrong to me, so I will try and wait a bit longer

There is nothing wrong with saying no thanks to an induction, you can ask for expectant management (scan to check blood flow in the cord, check baby's heartbeat, etc) and as I understand it, if a sweep won't get you started then a pessary probably won't either, so they'll then give you a drip to cause contractions, and if you fail to progress it'll likely end in a C-section. Not the end of the world, but somehow it seems reasonable to wait a couple extra days instead, assuming all is well you baby and you.

Totally your choice, but don't feel like you are taking some reckless decision by deciding to wait that little bit longer. I'd be worried that inducing when baby isn't quite ready would mean that he/she wasn't in the right position which would mean a slow or non-progressive labour, leading to a higher likelihood of interventions which arguably might not have been necessary if baby was allowed to move into position and stimulate labour on his/her own. Just my two cents. Mine were 8, 12 and 10 days overdue and I refused offers of inductions/sweeps, but thankfully didn't actually go long enough to feel the need for scans, etc. Hope things start off for you soon!

p.s. Stats show a high percentage of first pregnancies go to 41 weeks gestation, scan dates are notoriously unreliable at actually predicting when a baby will be born. A friend recently had her baby at 16 days overdue (not induced) and baby was just over 7lbs. Her dates had to have been wrong!

oh and forgot- howdidthishappenthen- what do the midwives/hospital do if you refuse induction? How do they make sure the baby is ok? do they scan the placenta/do regular checks to make sure things are ok?

it's up to you what you do, noone can make you have an induction. fwiw I had a sweep at 8 days over and went literally straight into labour. unless they accidentally break your waters i think it's a pretty harmless intervention. you can ask for daily monitoring instead of induction to keep an eye on baby's progress, mw should be able to tell you more about relative risks etc if you make your feelings on induction clear

thanks sarahbuff and sanfairyann, reassuring replies- this is what makes me worry that jumping into n induction would be the wrong decision as baby has been measuring 1 or 2 weeks 'small' according to midwives through whole pregnancy, so dates/growth scan could be inaccurate. My first labour was entirely fine, 9 days overdue but no interventions, so I am now aiming to stay calm and trust my body can do it again and not worry myself with any 'time limits'.

Are hospitals generally prompt with the expectant management aspect does anybody know? Because I would expect them to scan/check baby certainly within the next 5 days if she hasnt arrived, but is that how it goes? Cant wait till Mon to ring midwives and so I can stop pestering you lovely helpful and patient people

Didn't do any of those things with me . I think they'd already given up hope of any reasonable conversation after I insisted them I was having a home water birth (which of course never happened - labour fecking hurts. No. REALLY).

TwoPeas. You can hold out longer if you like, it's your choice. In some European countries, 42 weeks is classed as the EDD for women, so there's no concern if pregnancies go to this term. The main medical worry here is that your placenta becomes less efficient the longer the pregnancy term, however they can carry out an ultrasound if they have concerns. Sounds to me like you know your body and are confident of it, so carry on listening to it.

TwoPeasOnePod I think it's a good indicator how much they are worried about the health of your baby/placenta as to how quickly they get you in for a scan should you decide to postpone or decline induction. In other words, it's funny how they are happy to induce on a magical day, say term +10, but if you say no thanks to the induction but wait for a scan, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they said come in for a scan at term +14... So clearly they aren't so worried that in those extra 4 days the placenta will decline enough to cause baby problems, so why should you worry about waiting those extra days to go into labour yourself? And another interesting thing to me is that you said you were 9 days over term with your first, I think that is a good indicator that you are likely to go a similar time over with this one too. But in any case, I'm hoping you already went into labour as your last post was 2 days ago! :)

hey sarahbuff, yes that is an excellent point you made there! What is with the rush to get people induced?! I really don't get it..And no such luck with having it, I'm still here, hanging on eleven days overdue BUT now Ive officially decided to cancel the induction I feel 100% more confident, just dreading going so far as 43 weeks without any movement, we shall have to see how it goes!

please do let us know what happens TwoPeas- as if i have DC2 i plan to refuse induction!

Hope things are happening for you today, TwoPeasOnePod? Thought it was really interesting, have been watching "Special Deliveries" on iPlayer (BBC1 NI) and they have shown two inductions, one lady was 10 days overdue, pessaries were ineffective and syntocinon didn't dilate her cervix. After many hours, her labour ended in a CS. The one that was on last night the lady was 12 days overdue when she went in, had FOUR pessaries, syntocinon then an epidural and 4 midwife shift changes later finally gave birth with help from a vaccuum. All in all I think she was in labour for 2 full days or something like that. It strikes me how once they start that first pessary, there is no going back, even if it is clear that baby is not ready because they have no effect. It does make you wonder how different those labours would go given an extra few days to get going/at least let the cervix ripen on its own? As someone else very interestingly pointed out on another thread, to save one baby at risk from being overdue they have to induce 500 women... Anyway, hope things are happening for you now! :)

I did, I was due to be induced at 40+13 and refused, was offered daily monitoring instead, we went for the monitoring at 40+13 and then I went into labour the next day and he was born at 42wks exactly - it was definitely the right decision for me. Good luck!

Ive started another thread about it too ladies, about going into week 43 (omfg...) I saw midwife last night for attempted sweep and she said my cervix is closed and still long, so at this point not ready for labour, which makes me more confident in trusting my body and waiting it out- the thought of them inducing if my cervix isnt remotely ripe seems absurd.

The midwife was so positive about it and basically said they vastly prefer the natural route (even if it leads to interventions anyway) but are bound by guidelines and protocol.. and told me to keep as assertive as I am being over this, throughout the whole situation, which has cheered me up no end. My bodys done this before and I will do it again,and keeping it on my own terms is working up to thsis point. ofc you have to break some eggs to make an omelette so I'm open to it going wrong even from a natural start, would be foolish not to be openminded about it going 'wrong' (ie. not the way I'd prefer!! ) regardless of avoiding induction.

So here I am, chugging the (crap)berry leaf tea down and walking up and down the stairs a lot thankyou for the wishes of good luck and will definitely keep you updated muslimah28

What happened?? Did you manage to avoid induction? X