I'm having an induction 8am tomorrow!!!!

[Zara1984]

First baby, at 40+1. Have had high blood pressure & unexplained bleeds, hence the reason for early induction. They were able to do a sweep earlier this week (was about 1cm dilated), all my plug has gone since then.

Any tips???? I'm not really that nervous.... Actually just really excited!! DH is bricking it a bit

I had one and it was fine. 9 hours from start of drip to birth, 7 hours of labour and probably 5 hours of it really active/"hard" labour.

I got an epidural towards the end and it was a good decision -- I wasn't afraid of the pain of pushing/stitches/etc and was nice and calm throughout, which may have contributed to me not having any tears or needing any stitches at all. Discharged 18 hours later!

You may not need the epi, I got it more because I found the internal I got halfway through v v traumatic -- but I have a bad abuse history so there was an emotional reason behind that too. Basically I wanted it because in the moment, the idea of being stitched or needing forceps or something was just too much and I wanted to make sure I didn't need to struggle to get enough pain relief in the event. It was the right decision for me and I would recommend it to others.

IME induction was not as bad as people made out. Not at all. I remember the birth very fondly!

My tips... don't push until you absolutely have to. Your uterus will do a LOT of pushing without you involving yourself. The more you push, the more chance you'll have an injury imo. Also: if the mw tells you to hold your breath to push, ignore her. Breathe as you feel comfortable. And don't push for long stretches. You'll exhaust yourself, and the baby won't necessarily get there any faster in any case.

Good luck and by all means, feel excited!!

Thank you!!! That is a really really useful post!!

No idea how I'm meant to get any sleep tonight