Induction Tomorrow

[Rachel130690]

So currently I'm 41+2 days pregnant :( and have been booked in for induction tomorrow, not sure what time yet will find out later today.. Anyways my Mw only gave me a leaflet on it which describes different ways they may try to get labour started.

I only know one person who was induced and I'm quite nervous about the whole thing.

So if any of you lovely ladies where induced what happened? Where you put straight onto a drip or did they try the pesserys/gel? (Sp?) what time did they start and how long was your labour?

Also if there's anything else I might need to know.

Thanks :)

Hello - Congrats! I'm presuming your first:) I've been induced twice, both times fine.

1. 42w, was in for 8am, had 1st pessary at 10, then 2nd at about 2pm I think. They broke my waters at 6pm which was fairly painless, I was 1cm dilated by then. They put me on the drip and the contractions started at 7pm regularly. I must say I was very scared and panicky as I had heard so many horror stories (women should really keep these to themselves, as fear makes your muscles clam up and can slow things down, as well as make things uncomfortable). I admit to having some pethadine at about 10pm, then I had an epidural at 12 at 8cm dilated. She was born at one. After the drugs I was quite monged out. Because I pushed so hard, whilst not feeling much I needed some stitches. All in all I would say it was a good experience, I wasn't screaming or anything.

1. Induced at 38w due to poss probs with the baby. Took 2 days to get me going as my body just wasn't ready to give it up. 3 x pessaries, then after the 3rd, they got a specialist to break my waters, i wasn't very dilated which you need to be. Then they got the sintosin drip going and by then wanted to get the baby out so put it quite high which I was slightly pissed off about. This time around I was determined not to have drugs so I had read a hypnobirthing book in the run uo to the birth which really helped. The contractions, or tightenings as they call them in hypnobirthing terms came quite hard and fast, but i really focused and DS was born 1.5 hrs later, no tears, no drugs, no damage, no fear.

i would say just because you are induced, it is not a scary thing. Just relax as much as you can, hard I know, but it's worth remembering that this is a natural process, and very soon you will have a gorgeous little bundle and all the fuss and worry will be behind you. My experiences were really positive, not trying to be smug. Good luck and congrats again:)

Thanks so much AdiVic you've helped put my mind at rest. I read the leaflet but wasn't sure if they did all three pessery, breaking waters and drip.

Both your experiences have put my mind at ease. And both sound quite good experiences, my only other question, was your Husband, partner (who ever you had with you) with you the whole time or were they sent home at any point?

I was induced at 42+2 3 weeks ago - currently typing left-handed as holding DS so please excuse typos!

I had previously agreed with Consultant Midwife that after my waters were broken I would be given 4 hours before the syntocin drp as I wanted to avoid this and the continual monitoring that it involves.

Had sweep and gel pessary and waited 6 hours - not much change. Normal procedure at that hospital would be another pessary and wait another 6 hours, but midwife felt this was unlikely to make much difference and kindly offered to contact MLU to see if I could have my water broken there - again I wanted as non-medicalised a birth as was possible (and safe). They agreed. Baby born 30 mins after waters broken. Went from 2-10 cm in 15-20 minutes. Was intense as very fast, but fine with gas and air. Baby was fine and
I needed no stitches. Husband could have been there all the time, but I had to be there at 7AM and asked him to arrive about 9.

Pessary then waters broken then drip as pessary did not do the job for me. It was all ok until the drip stage and then I needed pain relief (had lots of pethidine if I ever have to have syntocinon again I will request epidural). Took 37 hours from pessary to delivery, although "only" 19 of those were active labour.

I had a sweep a day for three days prior to my induction date, then went in at 6pm on the Saturday night, another sweep and then less pessary about 7pm. Unfortunatly it fell out around 11pm and they couldn't put another in until the morning so had sweep number 5 in the mean time. Second pessary sometime Sunday morning and nothing much all day until mild contractions started around 11ish that night.

I was monitored on and off until they started to increase in strength in the early hours of Monday morning when I was moved to the labour suit and told to phone DH about 2.30am. Hooked up to oxytocin drip and waters were broken by the obstetrician within the hour. From then on I was continually on the monitor and everything went very fast, went from 4cm to 8cm in about 45minutes, just started to think I would actually like that epidural now please when I felt the need to push and DD was born by 8.30 am Monday morning.

Overall yes it was very intense but it was so quick it really was over in a flash and while I would have accepted the epidural had there been time I managed on gas & air and in hind sight was really pleased as it meant one less needle and one less thing to think about post birth. I was also vey lucky to have a lovely midwife whose brilliant handling of my very speedy labour meant I didn't tear at all.

The thing no one told me is how it can take a couple of days, we naively thought being booked for induction early Saturday evening meant we'd have our baby that night so I was unprepared for the wait.

I agree people's horror stories don't help, fear creates pain so just try to take things as much as possible in your stride, concentrate on the end result and let your birth partner help you as much as possible, be it just hand holding or communicating with the midwives.

Good luck :)

hello Rachal130690 - my husband was with me the whole time with the first, apart from the odd trip out to the car/cafe etc before things got going. As the 2nd took 2 days to get going, he was in and out - I felt much more relaxed and knew things were not going to happen. He was allowed to stay with me as things/procedures such as waters broken were done, but he was kept up at head end. Kind regards

Hi, I was induced 12 weeks ago. I went in for a checkup at 41w, and the doctor decided to bring me in that afternoon for induction.

I checked into the Maternity at 2pm for induction at 10pm. From about 8pm on, the midwives were doing heart trace etc. Senior House Officer came down at about 10pm to check on me and insert gel. I then had a further trace for an hour do they could check on the baby. Things took off sort of quickly and I was walking the halls from about 3am on. I got paracetamol about 4am but it had no effect whatsoever. About 8.30 they decided to bring me up to the delivery suites and asked me to call DH. My bloody phone was dead bc I had spent most of the night on Facebook so I asked the very lovely MW to call him. He arrived on with coffees and jumbo breakfast rolls for both of us the sweetie.

Things were getting fairly intense at that stage so they gave me gas and air, and subsequently pethedine. These were also fairly useless so about 2.30 pm I had an epidural. That was awesome. I even got to have a sleep! Under a quilt no less! I woke up after a couple of hours, and chatted away to the MW and DH.

At 8.45 I was 10cm so time to push. The MW was due to finish at 9 so she got me set up with cloths etc and broke my water.

I started pushing at 9pm and made fairly decent progress. My hospital only allows 1 hour of pushing so at 9.45 the new lead midwife (senior MW, MW and student MW) warned me that I had 15 mins before they would have to call the doctors and I might be looking at an instrument delivery. I really didn't want that, so a few more almighty pushes and there she was!

Totally amazing and not at all as terrifying as I thought it would be. There were even a few funny moments such as DH telling the student MW to pipe down with her "keepitgoing keepitgoing keepitgoing" because epidural or no, I was probably going to kick her

Don't be afraid of the epidural, seriously. You'll have your gorgeous baby at the end of the day and it'll all be worth it

Also don't be afraid of the drip. An earlier poster mentioned about how you only ever hear the horror stories. I wasn't induced but didn't really progress past 6cm so had the drip. Best thing ever! I had been in labour for well over 48 hrs by this point and had never contracted regularly from the word go. Within 20 mins of the drip going up I was contacting 4 in ten and by after another couple of hrs I was ready to push. Go with the flow and try not to worry.

Thanks everyone. It's great to hear other people's experiences. I'm hoping ill be okay without an epidural but I'm def keeping my mind open to all the options.

I have heard different opinions about the drip but if it helps bring my baby to me then ill be happy :)

Thanks again everyone

Hi Rachel good luck with your induction tomorrow....I've been induced twice both early at 39 weeks due to small baby's and have another induction booked for next week of the sweep I had earlier doesn't work, I'm currently 37+5....
1st baby had the whole shebang, waters broken, drip, pethadine and an epidural and was in labour in total 11hours
2nd baby I had my waters broken, no drip, progressed to 4cm in about an hour and then from 4cm to baby being born was only 24 min so no time for any pain relief as I hate the gas n air
I'd say be prepared to consider the epidural when the drip goes up as things can get quite rough quite quickly but u can always ask for more time to progress naturally before they put it up anyway, I'm hoping to avoid the drip this time but everyones experience is different and many women find that it helps as speeds the labour up, hope all goes well for u x

I've been induced three times. The first two times took days but as soon as the pessary was in with dc3 I walked up and down the ward for hours, he was born that evening. Who knows whether the walking helped move thing along more quickly. I really believe that it did and would advise anyone to do it. Good luck

Hey thanks again everyone, baby was born today at 10.03pm by induction. Waters broke at 12.40 and put on drip at 1.40 pm, no epidural for me, coped on gas and air and diamorphine. Was quite the experience but I coped and I'm so happy I didn't have epidural.

There was a few things happening during labour but we made it :)

Congratulations!
Boy or girl?