Induction Friday - AROM, no pessary/drip?

[mildred37]

Anyone experienced this?

Stubborn baby means that at 40+12 on Friday I'm going in to be induced. Midwife did a second sweep yesterday and said she could feel my cervix was very soft and stretchy (75% effaced) and that an artificial rupture of membranes would be possible. Therefore she predicted that on Friday I wouldn't need the pessary/gel, as cervix is already favourable, so they would just break my waters and monitor me for 2 hours to see if labour started on its own. If not they will start a drip.

Please share your stories with me of AROM alone....I am hoping once they are broken labour will start pretty much straight away but wanted to see what the MN census was???

Don't know but am facing the exact same tomorrow! Gutted really. DD was 8 days late but sweep worked, this time x3 & still waiting. Had ARM in labour last time, went from 5cm to 10cm in 2 hours.
hope can just ARM as it's the drugs which make for the more painful.contractions.

I've heard this can work, though I have to say that when I was induced at 40+14 for postdates the ARM actually stopped the contractions I had been having. I was 3cm already so they went straight to ARM and then after that straight to drip. The problem is once they've broken your waters there's no going back, so you need to have a plan for what happens if ARM doesn't get it done. In my case the midwives kept saying that the ARM might work and if not then they'd give me 4 hours and if that did work I could still use the pool and so on. It made it sound as though the end point of a drip was a lot further away and more negotiable than it actually was once they'd started. It was only once they'd got the drip up to full speed that they realised that 'no epidural' wasn't a preference on my birth plan, an epidural wasn't an option at all, and then the expression on the midwife's face was pure horror. Mine is a whacky case and quite unusual but so this isn't to scare you. I would just say make sure you've got a plan A and a plan B in case it doesn't work.

ah quertas it is not good that wasn't explained to you, & they didn't check your notes properly. I am an anaesthetist & put pre synto epidurals in all the time & that is def my plan if necessary!

In my case, AROM brought on such a massive step change in the pain level and the contractions which had been pretty manageable since pessary was given the previous day that i ended up having an epidural out of sheer desperation...i had no idea that AROM would do that, otherwise i would have discussed having the epi done at same time. It was not pleasant. And I barely remember agreeing to the epidural being done. Sorry don't want to scare you either but I felt that the facts hadn't been properly set out and no one had warned me what was about to happen. I was naive in hindsight but it was my first and DP wasn't there....having been sent home an hour earlier due to me not being in established labour and it being the end of visiting time

I'm not bitter . If there's no option, then there's no option and I still think my last birth was a generally good if painful experience. I just wish I'd realised what that level of pain would mean and I could've had a better plan. As it was I assumed I'd be able to communicate and I really wasn't (!) so DH had to wing it in helping me. In the same situation again I'd just want to have a much more detailed 'script' for the birth. I've got my fingers crossed for you both Splatt and Mildred!

all my labours were started this way as i am allergic to the prostin gel.

anyway it was fine, broke waters then monitered for half an hr to check.baby ok and then up snd mobilise to help get things moving.

you can wait longer than two hours before starting on drip, diff hospitals have diff policies but you can ask for more time etc. will depend on you and baby etc.

having waters broken can be uncomfortsble you can have gas and air whilst they do it.

As far as I have heard it can be v successful if everything is favourable, but my midwife said the best advice after ARM is to GET UP AND WALK! She also said its bloody hard as the pain level does increase. But walking is worth it!