Anyone had both an induced labour and a natural? Which was worse....?

[Kellstar83]

Hi ladies just wondering I'm 37 weeks pregnant with my 3rd baby both of my previous labours were induced at 39 weeks due to baby's being small....this time they thought baby was small, then thought she was ok so have a final scan next week to determine her size
Just wondering if anyone has had both induction and a "normal" labour and which was easier??
Both my inductions were awful - first really long 13 hrs and 2nd really short an hr and a half but horrifically painful and baby was in distress :( feel like I'm doing it for the first time again now as never actually gone into labour naturally or experienced what it's like so just was after some insight to the differences if any?
Thanks :) x

I had two inductions and two spontaneous labours,all were very painful but I always felt more in control in the spontaneous labour,that things were progressing at my pace and not hurtling along.

Hi kellstar, congratulations on baby no.3

I have had natural births, induced births and c-sections and all I can say is it really does depend on each birth- its quite hard to generalise (not very helpful I know!). I do think my natural births were a bit less painful than my inductions but it really depends on so much... Position of the baby, how tired you are, if you can find a comfortable position etc etc

One of my inductions was my best labour, everything just seemed to run smoothly and it was calm and fairly quick, so not all inductions are bad even if you've had bad experiences in the past

Best of luck with bring your little one into the world, I hope it goes really well for you xx

Thanks for the reply, yeah I felt with both of them that I went into hard labour straight away and especially with the 2nd felt totally out of control how fast things progressed, hopefully this time things will be a little calmer :) x

I had both - natural onset was much more manageable as it almost eases you into it! (in my case anyway!!) everything is much more gradual. My induction was breaking my waters then straight onto a drip - got very painful, very quickly and I felt really out of control - hated it

I was induced at 40+ with my first two and went into labour naturally with my third.

When I was induced there was lots of boring waiting around during the day, but once things got going my labours were pretty quick - both a couple of hours. Not overly painful, I had gas and air, and was home 6 hours after each birth.

With ds3 I expected to be induced again and nearly had a heart attack when my waters broke one evening - I felt unprepared and nervous, excited too. Had no idea what to expect - I'd wanted to be induced again as I liked the organised knowing what was going to happen thing. But, I started getting pains a few minutes after my waters broke so went to hospital. Had a quick and easy labour, I'm not sure whether it was easier because I knew what to expect and was calmer or because I refused to take the gas and air out of my mouth! But it was fine and just felt like a dull ache rather than pain.

I'm expecting number 4 and think that I'd like to go into labour naturally again as it was my easiest, quickest birth.

Ooh ps can u agree to be induced but refuse the drip?? Eg let them break my waters but not put the drip up? I think that was def the problem as it forced me into labour so hard and fast my body and the baby went into shock I think! X

I was induced for DS but not for DD. The induction was longer and more painful than the natural birth, but still manageable (I didn't need the drip or my waters broken, the gel was enough).

Kellstar, the problem is that once your waters have broken, your baby needs to come out relatively quickly because of the risk of infection. I suppose you can ask them to wait a few hours before they put the drip up to see if labour starts "spontaneously".