5 sweeps and still not in labour...desperate to avoid another c sec. :(

[blushingbaby]

just whinging really. DS went 16 days over with not a sniff of a contraction. 4 pesaries and a full drip later i got to 10cm only for it all to end in emcs (ds was back to back and got stuck and distressed)

so this time unless it happens 'natuarally' (without drugs i mean as i know sweeps are a form of induction) i'll be having another c sec.

I've had my 5th this morning and been told i'm at exactly the same point as i was last wednesday. (cervix 3-4cm, stretchy, anterior but baby only 4/5th engaged)

I nearly cried when mw asked if i'd tried bouncing on a birthing ball - its all i've done since 30 weeks on advice from consultant on avoiding another back to back.

I'm beginning to think that natural labour is actually impossible for my body??

check out reflexology points for inducing labour on net - may work!

tried it... just got a crappy useless body

I'm on my first baby and 3rd sweep (currently 8 days overdue). Induction not only scares me, but also means travelling to the city hospital 15 miles away rather than the lovely looking midwife unit two streets away.

I'm with you on the 'just got a crappy useless body' feelings. I've done lots of (probably typical first timer) preparation, all about 'your body knows what to do', which clearly it doesn't. Fear of hospitals in general and drips in particular... Gah!

Oh and mine's being described as 'a bit back to back'. Which I suspect if I have to lie on my back on a hospital bed will become properly back to back.

And finally, a little message to all my friends. No - I still haven't had it. Yes I will tell you when I have. Yes I have tried curry, long walks, raspberry leaf tea, anything else you've read about. No, they haven't worked. Yes - astonishing, isn't it?

thanks rufusnine and silversmith. I'm so tired and grumpy now i can hardly talk to people in rl about it without snapping or wanting to cry. i feel like i'm being a totally crap mum to my ds too as i'm just aching and overly self involved!
good luck silversmith my advice if they do induce you is to refuse to lie on you back. It is possible to be a little mobile even with a drip. I wasn't pushy enough about that (too polite) and regret it now. I'm sure mine wouldn't have ended in emcs if i'd been allowed to move as i wanted.

I too advocate keeping mobile while being induced. Gravity has to help!! I had drip and monitor on at first with DD3 so was a bit tied to the bed but once off monitor i walked around the room trundling the drip stand like someone on Strictly!! I hope all goes well with you ladies . . . it'll all be over soon and you'll forget the bad bits - well not forget - nobody forgets but we all must all come to terms with it cos we keep on having babies - no more for me though as I'm too old now !!!

I had 3 sweeps with my first (EMC, failed induction), and 2 with my second. I had a very posterior cervix at all of them!

My Consultant did my second sweep for my second and afterwards said she would have normally stopped before she did but I was so determined to go into natural labour she kept going .... I was in obvious pain but I kept telling her to keep going, and eventually she managed to get a finger to where it needed to be! Went into natural labour 3 days later.

Not sure if you have a similar issue or not, but don't give up and keep pushing for you want, and don't take no for an answer unless you are happy with the decision yourself!

You need lots of orgasms (nope not joking) Has worked for me all four times, you could throw in some sex too if you want to make your hubby happy

How many's lots Rikalaily??
I've just cancelled my sweep for tomorrow. Need a break from being poked about. Consultant app on monday so we shall see what she has to say.

acupuncture was the only thing that made me dilate at all - a whole 1/2 cm. But when I tell you that I dilated to 3cm during my entire labour (inc 18 hours on syntocinon) you'll see how good that was!

Also a woman ran a marathon recently and had her baby the next day (at 39 weeks, the insane bint) exercise is clearly effective.

I'm not suggesting you should do this but... castor oil does work apparently. I've also heard it's a deeply unpleasant experience all round so wouldn't be my first choice.

no kenobi caster oil will be my very last resort. Don't much fancy doing a marathon either. will try a good walk i think.
Dilating doesn't really seem to be the problem. I'm 3 cm but the mw said she can stretch it to quite a bit more than that, it's just baby is too high!

Unfortunately that was my problem to blushing. Maybe a half marathon?! should shake him/her down

too not to

Oh OP, I feel for you. Time never goes so slowly than at this point. Have you got something nice organised for this weekend, to totally take your mind off it? A meal out, a glass of wine or two etc? Just some R&R and happy hormones might help a bit.

It is not a crappy body - its produced one perfectly gorgeous child, and another one soon to be, however it ends up coming out. And natural labour is perfectly possible for your body. Maybe you just naturally would go into labour much later eg 43 or 44 weeks. Its just that, now we can date pregnancies pretty accurately, we know when its usually a good time to call it quits and intervene before the risks start rising (and believe me, I am in no way pro-induction after my first horrendous birth!), so you might not get to that point.

Anyway - 3cm dilated sounds quite positive. Induction might not be too horrendous if you're almost there anyway, just a pessary to tip you over the edge?

I did acupuncture in the weeks leading up to my second, to try to avoid the 42 week induction again, and it seemed to do the trick. Worth a go, or too late at this stage?

In any case, 'natural' birth ain't all its cracked up to be. I'm never doing either again (crash CS or VBAC) .

I'm definately not having an induction so its natural start or c section. My induction with ds was horrendous and i'm not prepared to go through it. (as well as previous experience, it increases the risk of scar rupture from emcs)

Oh blushing. You sound so forlorn.

I had an emcs with dd (got to 10cm, pushed for 6hrs, dd distressed and v stuck). I was desperate to have a vbac. But 38hrs after my waters broke after trying everything I could think of bar chemical induction, my cervix was still long, closed and unfavourable. I had another cs. But I hadn't had a long labour or intervention or hours of pushing. I went into theatre laughing, joking and accepting it. The team all knew me, they knew my wishes, they knew it wasn't what I wanted but worked bloody hard to make it everything it could be. I thought about things I could do to make the cs as natural and calm as possible and the team worked alongside me.

Was it what I wanted? No. Was it a positive experience? Yes. I can't have babies the way nature intended and now know why. I thought it would only ever be a negative thing having a cs but really if it does come down to that, it's not necessarily a terrible and traumatic thing. Could you try and spin the cs as a positive thing in case it becomes medically necessary?

BB, can you even be induced again after an emcs? I didn't think you could.

thank you lukewarm and showofhands, I really need to just get over it but the emcs with ds caused so many problems after, the most distressful of which was that my milk never came in. I spent months feeling like a failure- unable to give birth, unable to breast feed. I promised myself not to worry about it all this time, and just say, what will be will be, but as it all gets closer all these feelings of failure are coming back! . It's stupid i know but its like i'm failing at being a mum and woman! I know that sounds rediculous- keep thinking i would have been the one who died in childbirth 100 yrs ago! Why am i doing this to myself??

kenobi my consultant is one of the few (typical of me to get her) who thinks its fine to put a vbac on a drip! I'm not convinced and have told her so to which she just said 'well keep an open mind.' Needless to say i'm still not convinced!

I think quite a few of the people I know would have been the ones who died decades ago (including me and DD1) - thank god for CS!

You are not a failure - its just that childbirth and all that goes with it is the first time many of us have (fortunately) been truly out of control in our adult lives. There isn't a huge amount you can do to influence the outcome. The general societal idea of a beautiful 'natural' birth is pretty far from the reality for most women, and yet we think that if we don't 'achieve' that, then we haven't done it 'right' and somehow aren't 'real' women.

Balls to all that. Nature is harsh and brutal, and childbirth can be as well. If you both get through it alive and unscathed then you've done pretty well in my book. And don't forget about the 9 months hard labour you've already put in!

Even if you do end up having a CS, it will hopefully be a gentle elective experience, as showofhands says, and much more positive than your first one. Also, you won't be quite as pumped full of drugs, so the BF may work out this time.

Re not augmenting induction with a drip for a VBAC, I would tend to agree with you that its not the best idea. Equally I would say castor oil (you mentioned near the beginning) is equally a terrible idea - please don't do it, there is absolutely no evidence it works and it will just make you feel terrible.

Could you try to argue for a pessary or two, and then go straight to ELCS if nothing happens? I agree with showofhands that you need to find a way to turn this into a positive experience for you, one where you are in control whatever the choices may end up being.

And plan a night out!

Thank you lukewarm. I'm currently looking up risks of induction on vbac so that i can go 'armed' to my consultant app on monday. Like you've said, if i can't have my natural vbac, I certainly don't want another emcs so need to start planning how to push for a planned, calm, c sec and give myself some time to come to terms with it.

Hi there,

I'm overdue and been desperate to VBAC too so can I share your thread with you!

I keep uming and ahing about induction/c section. There is no way I want to go through what I went through last time (long induction, treated badly then emcs) but I so so so don't want a c section with a toddler to look after as well! I do keep hearing of people who have positive induction stories too...

I think the risk of scar rupture is tiny so double tiny is still tiny (so my consultant says) although there are some types they wont do on a vbac and some they will (I think they go straight to drip and avoid the pessary but I can't remember - appointment on thursday).

Part of me is tempted to try a mobile induction and to agree a time limit in advance if nothing is working to go to c section, or if I'm going to end up tied to the bed to agree a csection. Our hospital will let you choose if you get to 42 weeks but still think a vbac attempt is healthier.

I so so so wish I could go into labour naturally - wishing it for us both!!

Ah thanks usingapseudonym you sound exactly the same as me. Thankfully i'm at another hosp this time but last time i was just left on the bed. when i asked if i could get up/ move about/ go to the loo they just passed my dh a bed pan!! . It was terrible.
I hope we both go into spontaneous labour soon!! (Like now!) I think you are right about the pessary/ drip thing because i remember being surprised as i thought it would be the other way round.

Poor you op... I had four sweeps with dd, 2 weeks over due and on New Years Eve they offered me a cs and I leapt at it with both feet (if that's possible at 40+14 :o) as I was so fed up of being huge, uncomfortable and poked at. Plus I'm a wimp and those four sweeps HURT

Thankfully I'm at a different hospital too - and they are trying to make things easier for me this time (well, the mw I see are, but who knows who you will get on the day). Just treating you like a human being while you are in labour and feeling in control I am sure made a HUGE difference to whether I felt I could labour safely or not.

When were you due? Let's get these babies out naturally and easily grin. I've no idea what decision I would actually make next thursday yet!!

37-42 weeks is normal human gestation. Some families gestate up to 43-44 weeks. Your baby just might not be ready yet!