Early induction: always awful?

[YouAndMeAreGoingToFallOut]

I'm 33 weeks pregnant with my first child. I had been hoping for a nice low intervention birth at the midwife-led birthing centre attached to my hospital (who doesn't I suppose!) but that has gone out of the window as I have developed gestational diabetes. I will now be giving birth on the labour suite.

The consultant obstetrician has said that as long as I remain relatively stable (I'm on metformin but not insulin) then they would plan to induce me between 39 and 40 weeks (given when the weekend falls I imagine it might be closer to 39 weeks) "unless I go into labour naturally before then". If I end up on insulin (as many gestational diabetics do) then I think I might be looking at an even earlier induction at 38 weeks.

Are early inductions always a total nightmare? At my NCT class there was a lot of chat about the "cascade of interventions" that result from an induction, and we were reminded that we don't have to accept one. However, that was in the context of induction for going overdue. Whilst I know that they can't actually force me to have one, I'm not really inclined to go too much against medical advice.

Do I just need to prepare myself for the fact that I will have a long, painful and very medical labour, probably ending in a section anyway? Does anyone have any positive experiences of early induction?

I've had 2 inductions due to ICP & although I've nothing to compare them against they definitely weren't terrible.
I asked for meptid about 2/3rds through but apart from that had no intervention at all. Gas & Air made me nauseous
DD1 - I had the pessary Saturday lunchtime, checked after 24hrs & ok to break waters so just waited for bed in delivery ward. Waters broken around 5:30 & she arrived at 1:30am
Dd2 was dilated enough not to need pessary. Waters broken around 7pm I think - (not long before eastenders which I watched in delivery suite) & she arrived at 4:25am.
Worst part for me was the constant monitoring - didn't make me completely immobile but made it more difficult to be constantly active.

Forgot to say DD1 was 40 weeks exactly & Dd2 was 38+2

I had two inductions out of three births. Both were simple and quick!
I agree, the worst part was being stuck to the monitors. I was in a lot of pain due to being stuck on the bed. As its started artificially, contractions can come on thick and fast. That's the only thing I struggled with. Apart from that, I had no interventions.
Mine were 8 days over and 14 days over so whether it depends upon which point you are and whether body responds accordingly? I don't know. But wanted to give you a positive story.

I had an induction at 37 weeks and I wouldn't call it terrible.

I had a pessary which didn't work, then the drip. The contractions were painful, but they didn't really seem worse than with my previous labour (which admittedly was back to back). Things were slow to get going, so there was some talk of a c-section, but in the end, labour speeded up enough for baby to be born vaginally with no further interventions.

Agree the constant monitoring was a bit annoying, as I found being active helped, which is difficult with constant monitoring.

Induced at 39 weeks, 3 hour labour, one tiny scratch, felt amazing the day after!

It's nice to hear some positive stories. I understand that my hospital has mobile telemetry monitoring available: I don't know if that will be an option/helpful. They also offer mobile/partial epidurals, which I guess might also work well? I'm trying not to get too anxious. To be honest I'm mainly not looking forward to the prospect of several days in hospital waiting for things to get going!

Yes, I'd almost forgotten about the waiting around.

I went in at 9am as instructed, but because the labour ward was busy, it was after 5pm before the midwives were able to start the induction.

Definitely bring books / magazines / other portable leisure activity to stop yourself being bored half to death if there's an unavoidable delay.

I was induced with my second baby and it was much better than my first. Worst bit was having to stay overnight before they induced me using a pessary then waiting for things to get going. When they did it was all done in 3 hours part of which I slept. No time for anything except gas and air once it ramped up. Recovered really quick. No monitoring either. Could move around the whole time. Guess it depends why you are being induced as to level of monitoring. If it's just that the baby is big then might be minimal (my guess so maybe someone with more experience might know better )

Oh yes the waiting around.....
1st time not too bad, could have coped with not being woken every 2hrs overnight but not ok.
2nd time went in at 9am Saturday & after examination & deciding I didn't need a pessary I was second on the list for a spare room in delivery ward. By Sunday morning I was no 4 & by the time I cried at them about how ridiculous it all was at about lunchtime on Monday I was back to no 2.
I was only there because they insisted I had to be induced at 38 weeks & it was URGENT (even though consultant let me go to 40 weeks 1st time round). Not that bloody urgent evidently!

I was induced at 40 weeks using the gel. Waters went on their own and recorded labour was 3 hours start to finish with no intervention. I did find it incredibly painful but I have nothing to compare it to (only had gas and air as no time for anything else as I went from 4cm to 10 in about 15 minutes).

Went in at 9am and had him just before midnight.

I was induced for both of mine. My first at 36 weeks because of pre eclampsia. It wasn't a great experience but I'm pretty certain that was because of all the interventions due to pre eclampsia. The second time was 11 weeks ago at 37 weeks due to diabetes. It was great. I went in Thursday evening and had him on Friday at around 5. I just had gas and air. I did need an episiotomy but that was because he was back to back and 9lbs 9oz. When he came out 2 midwives looked at each other and one said "huh no wonder she couldn't get him out". It was such a positive experience though.

Induced at 38 weeks, waters broken at 1.30pm as already naturally 2cm dilated so no need for the drip. She was born at 8pm. Although did need massive episiotomy and ventouse to get her out, because her HR dropped. But still, a very quick labour.

Just read previous post about going from 4cm to 10 cm in 15 mins. With my last one I went from 3cm to 10 cm in a couple of minutes. She measured and said 3 cm, walked over to write in my notes and as she picked up her pen I felt like I needed to push. I must have made a noise because she said "do you feel like you need to push from your bum". She legged it back over and I was 10 cm! Not sure if that was down to the drugs they give you to induce or just my body.

I was induced at 40 weeks and absolutely nothing happened. Nor again the second time they tried. So I ended up with an 'elective' Caesarian which was fine, peaceful and no issues, lovely healthy baby. Best advice I can give is to take earplugs into hospital with you so you can get some sleep on the ante-natal ward, because it can take a long time and it's so noisy. I was so tired by the time the baby came, it wasn't great way to start.

I was induced at 40+4 because my waters went with no labour in sight, in which circumstances they recommend induction because of the risk of infection. Like you I wanted an active birth in the MLU but didn't have that option.

It was fine. The drip did ramp up some very painful contractions very fast. I took the epidural after 2 hours and was very glad I did. Being monitored continuously was actually reassuring and after the epi I couldn't wander around anyway, so being hooked up to the machine was no biggie. Delivery went great, 15mins pushing and no stitches required. I had feared the whole cascade too, but in my case it didn't go that way. Good luck

Had a reassuring chat with the consultant today. They definitely have mobile monitoring, and I would be able to labour in water if I wanted to. Basically she said they are keen to keep women as active as possible. So I feel better about it now.