What are my chances of getting my home birth?

[JennyPiccolo]

Am 42 weeks tomorrow, have begrudgingly agreed to being induced on Monday after getting harassed by doctors. I was given a sweep at the hospital on Friday but the midwife wrote something about it not being successful in my notes, which i didn't see until i got home.

Had a show tonight and have had some period-type pains but nothing consistent enough that i would call them contractions. Also had some lower back pain. The baby's engaged.

Is there much chance i'll go into labour before monday or am i being overly hopeful? Am really dreading induction as i'd had my heart set on a chilled out birth at home.

You can withdraw your consent for induction at any time and just go for expectant monitoring.

The show and period pains are encouraging good luck.

How would i go about doing that though? They pretty much told me that wasn't an option.

As long as you are a mentally competent adult then they can give you advice, but cannot dictate your care. Their hospital policy may state that they should recommend induction at 42 weeks, which may have translated to "we can't let you go past 42 weeks", but the nice thing about not being an employee is that you are in no way obliged to abide by their policy :).

If you haven't already, have a good read of this page. If you do decide to decline induction on Monday there are two issues where you may face resistance;

• not having induction
• still opting for a homebirth (lots of hospitals only recommend HB to a certain point).

If you do decide not to be induced on Monday (and it does sound like thing might be happening - with DD1 active labour started with period back pain :)) you might want to write a letter to the Head of Midwifery stating that you are continuing with you plans for a HB, with expectant management until you labour naturally (poss and additional sweeps), and that as this is an informed decision you anticipate her support. You also need to call them in the morning and let them know that you'll be declining their offer of induction at this point - you might want to consider whether there's a date at which you would go in for induction as they may well want to book you in again (not that you have to, but it might cause less angst at their end).

I found these phrases fantastic for helping me remember that it was my choice whether or not to accept their advice. Hopefully you won't need any of them, but they're handy to have in your back pocket, especially when you start deviating from the "nice obedient patient" position.

All that said, I'm really hopeful that its all irrelevant as you're about to go into labour naturally :). I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope you have a straightforward, peaceful and calm birth - preferably at home, but wherever, whenever and however it happens :)

Thanks so much for replies, am totally climbing the walls here.

Thanks for the links, had a good look through and i feel a bit more in control of the situation now.

Really hoping things speed up a bit now, if i'm definitely in some stage of labour by monday then i'll feel a lot better about refusing induction.

My cousin had a hb last week at 19 days overdue, she said it was lovely and her community midwife was very supportive even though the consultant put the pressure on about being induced. Afaik she went for regular monitoring and sweeps but totally refused to consider induction while her dd was showing no signs of distress. Just remember that its your body and no one can do anything to you without your consent.

I suspect that you'll go into labour soon anyway so will be able to ignore this

very good post from tangle there.
It makes me furious that they have made you belive you have no option though it doesn't surprise me at all, I'm a student mw and I see this all the time. Of course you can refuse induction you can opt for exrtra monitoring eg ctgs and ultrasounds to check on baby's wellbeing and doppler studies to check the placenta is still functioning well.

please don't let anyone force you to do something you are not comfortable with. Research all your options and do what YOU want