10 days overdue: consent to induction or not?

[Terramirabilis]

I am now ten days overdue with my first baby. I've had contradictory advice from two different midwives about how long to leave it before induction. Had one nonstress test on Friday which looked great, no concerns about me or ds. Have another one Tuesday but also have an induction booked for Thursday when I will be 42 weeks. I know no one can make this decision for me but I'd appreciate any thoughts.

FWIW, my pro-induction points are:
Getting on with it after a tedious wait - might as well get it over and done with
Could be safer for baby
Avoids wasting any more of my leave (only get 12 weeks as am in USA and already 2 weeks gone)
My Mum never went into labour, induced every time including once at 20 days overdue (maybe we don't go into labour)

My pro-waiting points are:
Might go into labour naturally thereby avoiding downsides of induction
My DM went overdue every time so maybe it's our thing
September baby better for school

So I need to decide on Tuesday whether to go ahead with the induction on Thursday or not.

At 42 weeks, there would be few downsides to induction. You're in the US so you can easily get an epidural (if you want one) in case the induction makes for a painful labor. Every day you wait, the baby gains weight so it just makes everything more complicated.

I'm surprised they're letting you go to 42 weeks in the US though! As far as I understood here they will only let you go to 41 weeks max. Either way, I don't really see much downside to induction at your late stage.

They're happy to see me go to 42 weeks. It's after that that things get murkier. I really wanted to do Hypnobirthing and I'm concerned induction will ruin that. And afraid of the extra pain.

Given the short length of your ML, I'd go for an induction. I have 2 ds, the first we'll never know for sure how late he was. He's 27 now and was conceived the first month I came off the pill so I had no real idea of LMP; the first EDD I was given was a couple of weeks before Xmas and (after induction) he arrived the second week of January.

Ds2 was due at the end of July, (I had better knowledge of my dates) and after induction arrived almost three weeks late.

Most first time mothers spontaneously labour by 41+5. Why not give your body and baby a bit more time? If all is well there is no rush. Yes you have a short mat leave but an induction potentially means a complicated birth which may well be avoided by waiting a few more days

Induction won't ruin your hypnobirthing plans. My waters went on the Friday evening and I was put on the drip on Sunday morning because no other progress was made with labour. Although the pain did ramp up much faster than it would have otherwise I was still able to use my hypnobirthing techniques, coupled with gas and air in order to go through labour.

I only read recently that inductions are considered to be more painful than normal births but I would suggest you try with the hypnobirthing as planned until/if you feel you need something stronger.

Seems like maybe we should take the plunge. I'm hoping tomorrow when I go in for more monitoring they'll say I've dilated more. As I understand it, the more dilated I am the greater my chances of success. Anyone have any experience of this?

Yes, if your bishops score is low (so a closed, hard, posterior cervix) induction is less likely to be successful.