Being induced on Sunday - what to expect?

[lovegalore]

I'm being induced on Sunday evening, all very sudden due to baby's growth being an issue.

I hadn't planned for this so I'm just wondering if anyone can offer any words of wisdom? What can I expect?

I'm aware of the basics around an induction but as a FTM it's a completely new world to me!

Birth partner is only allowed to stay for initial assessment then has to go home until labour progresses

How are you being induced? How many weeks will you be?

@Natalie654321

How are you being induced? How many weeks will you be?

39 weeks, I don't know how I'm being induced yet. Hospital have said it'll be decided on the day

I was 41 weeks when I was induced. Mine was a long progress to get labour started, once I was in active labour the actual labour was only 3hrs in total. I had a gel to soften my cervix, this was left for 6hrs. Then my waters were broken. I was left for 2hrs. I was stuck at 2-3cm at this stage so they started me on the drip. It took a while to get labour going but they weren’t happy with baby’s heart rate, so they cranked that drip right up. 3hrs later he was here !

If its first child, could take a while....1-2 days?
Had 3 inductions, all went fine....no tearing, no interventions.
I took ALL the pain relief going as the contractions can come on quick quickly.
Good luck!

How they induce you will depend on the state of your cervix. Mine had done nothing so I had a 24 hour pessary (if that didn't work then it would be another 24 hour, then they go to 6 hour gels). The aim is just to open your cervix enough to break your waters.

My contractions started fairly mildly after about 6-7 hours. By the time the 24 hours were up and the pessary was removed, I was contracting well enough so they decided to leave me a couple of hours to see how it went. Thinks really ramped up then. Was examined and was 2cm but she thought they'd just about be able to break my waters so I was transferred to the labour ward.

Labour ward said they'd wait until DH got there to break my waters but alas, my cervix and uterus had other plans 😂 it was pushing if it's own accord before I could even get any bloody pethidine, DH made it with 20 minutes to spare 👍

I recommend epidural to anyone getting the drip! Don’t let them turn it on until the epidural has kicked in

@TwilightSkies 3 failed epidural attempts for me haha. Drip all the way with absolutely nothing. Gas & air didn’t even touch the sides so I gave up with it. It was intense shall we say! Haha. Luckily it was quick.

Prepare to be bored...I had two 24 hour pessaries and they were just able to break my waters, it was actually 72 hours in with waiting around time and then waiting for a bed on delivery. You can have gas and air for the pessaries and examinations, don't wait to have it offered though as they probably won't. If you can get an epidural plumbed in before the drip goes on I heartily recommend it. The actual labour was fine because of the epidural and I could feel the pressure to push. I did end up with forceps and episiotomy but they did it in the delivery room as she just needed turning a bit. That was my worst case prior to it happening but with the epidural it wasn't a problem and I was lucky in that it healed up beautifully. You will have a catheter if you have an epidural but I also found that ok. I had other complications but not related to the induction.

I was induced because of growth too and I was terrified (NCT class drove a lot of that) but honestly if they said I had to have another I would be perfectly happy about it as long as I could have an epidural again. They do make out that one pessary will get you going naturally and all good so you have to ignore the salesmanship side of things because I don't think that's the case for many.

If I had another I'd take more snacks and more stuff to do, and ask for gas and air every time they wanted a rummage round.

Aw no!
I wasn’t allowed an epidural the first time so I made damn sure I got one the second time! Despite the midwife trying to persuade me ‘awk lets just pop the drip on for a bit while we wait for the anaesthetist’....yeah she got told to bugger off!

Probably a lot of waiting around! Take all the pain relief you need, no medals for going without it. Get an epidural before if you need the drip. I would of died without it lol!!! Also gas and air is great

Mine was positive! Induced at 40+3 due to ivf. Pessary in at 11am. Lots of bouncing on ball. 6pm very mil period style pains. 11pm bit more period style pains. 2 paracetamol and a bath helped. 1am waters went naturally at 1am was 2cm dilated. 3am 5cm and have diamorphine. Lasted about an hour. 5am I asked for epidural but was 10cm so was time to push. Pushed for 45 min but contractions stopped so had the drip put in to get things going again and he was born happy and healthy at 6.30am.

My husband also couldn’t be there until 2am. He had to leave once on the post natal ward but that was totally fine too. The midwives were brilliant.

Hope it’s quick and safe for you. Good luck

Snacks and entertainment!

I was induced at 39+2 with DC1. It didn't work but it took 6 days before it was declared a failure and I had an (absolutely great) EMCS.

What I learned was: ask for your Bishop's score. It looks at how favourable your cervix is. If the score is below 5 then the chances of a successful induction are quite reduced. I wasn't told about this and found out afterwards that my score was 0, so no surprise it failed but a lot of anger that I wasn't told or given other options.

Have a think about what you'd like to happen if the score is very low - you don't have to consent to an induction (something else I didn't know) and there should be the possibility of an ELCS (there are risks here, too, but you've time to look up the relative risks on the RCOG website).

Hopefully your induction will go smoothly, but 1:10 fail so it's worth being prepared.