Induction stories

[ireallydonotknow]

Hi, I'm due to be induced this Wednesday at 40 weeks and have no idea what to expect. I haven't had any contact from my midwife since around 36 weeks so haven't had the chance to ask her any questions about the induction process. I've been booked in for the induction on the Wednesday but have been told to call the hospital to find out what time I'm due to go in. Should I take my hospital bag? And baby's stuff? I know baby is head down but have no idea if the head is engaged or if my cervix is favourable. I've been having a lot of pressure low down and baby has been pressing on a lot of nerves so think they're quite low down in my pelvis. Is it likely that I will have a pessary and be sent back home? I was also hoping for a water birth but not sure if this would even be possible now? For some reason I'm worried that they'll send me away and I won't be induced that day?!! If anyone has any experience of this whole process I'd be really grateful!! Tia x

Hi OP, I've had two inductions- one drip and one pessary. They also do a balloon induction now but I can't comment on that.

It's unlikely you'll be able to have a water birth as induced births need a lot more monitoring of the baby which is harder in water. It's also unlikely they'll put the pessary in and send you home for the same reason. They won't cancel your induction unless there is a huge volume of babies unexpectedly born that day- more common in September than august!

The bit I didn't expect is being on a warm with other ladies til we went into Labour but this might not be the case at your hospital- you might get your own room. Feel free to DM any other questions

And yes, take all your stuff and baby's

@kitkatsky thank you for replying! Did you get to choose the method of induction or did they go by certain factors? Sorry I probably sound really silly but have no idea about any of this!! I'm also wondering how long it took between the start to your baby being born? I know it's completely different for everyone though!

No, you don't get to choose. You'll probably have the pessary as it has been planned in advance abd that's better than the drip in my experience. All inductions are different. The pessary can take days, but mine put me into Labour in ten minutes and baby was born 7.5h later. That was my second baby but a big age gap from the first so I was told not to expect a quick experience. Also, when she put in the pessary she said I was slightly effaced but she'd expect a longish induction from experience. I showed her 😂

Mine went this order. Pessary in the morning. Not much happened. Went for a walk. At some point in the day they broke my waters. Still not much happened. Then I was put on the drip in the evening. Then everything happened quickly. I think it’s meant to be 1cm an hour but I went very quickly. Was going to go to surgery but then asked doctor to check again and I was dilated so then we just carried on there and DS born all fine. Thankfully!

Sorry! I don’t have much to add. I was induced at 39 weeks because of IUGR (baby not growing).

Good luck! Things never go the way you imagine they will. Take your bag with you.

I think they decide on minimal intervention so it goes in a particular order. But I don’t know for sure.

One thing is trust your instincts. I could tell something had changed and asked the doctor to check me again. By then I was fully dilated.

I had an induction on my second child at 42 weeks. I had very mild contractions when I got up that morning so after a trace, they were happy to go with breaking the waters to speed things up but no pessary or drip. For me, this meant that I could move between monitoring and didn't have to stay in the bed. Like pp, I was surprised that I was in a ward and in the end, I didn't move to a delivery room until I was 10cm. I used hypnobirthing tracks to block out the rest of the room, which really helped. I was 9 hours start to finish but really only 6 hours of contractions. No interventions and unmedicated with a much easier recovery than on my first! Best of luck 💪

Take some snacks. I ate my meals okay. (They had a light option! Omelette I think) basically it took a whole day so you still need to eat and drink. I don’t know how other places do it. I went in for 8am and I think my son was born at 11.15pm.

Oh yes, when they put you on the drip you have to stay attached to a heart monitor. That means on the bed which is a bit annoying. But you can still sit up and help tilt your pelvis.

Good luck!

I was induced at 37 weeks with my youngest child. I went in with all my things , hospital bag etc was given the pressary and stayed on the ward with other women. The other women were in for all sorts of different reasons.

I stayed on the ward in slow labor for two full days. My husband went home and just came for a few hours each day as we have another child to care for and honestly even with her I labored alone as no point in him sitting around doing nothing for days. It was ok actually and I was monitored but able to move around and do normal things.

By night 2 I asked to be moved to a private room as I'd had no sleep. Not because of the pain but because of the other patients partners coming and going and bringing friends and takeaway delivery to the ward at 3am etc

Things ramped up during night two in the private room and husband stayed. Unfortunately the labor ward was busy so I couldn't be taken down for water's breaking so I labored fully on the maternity ward. This was fine for me to be fair as I was preparing for a home birth and had labored at home till 9cm with my first. Not bigging myself up or anything im actually a weakling and have a very low pain threshold but I tend to go introvert in labor and prefer to be alone.

I gave birth later on day 3 on the labor ward. No issues. No pain relief. I had been told that induction was going to be the worst etc etc but it was actually less painful than my non induced birth and less panicked. I was prepared and was able to use my essential oils and music on both the shared ward and other rooms. I used a ball and was able to move around etc

My friend went in for induction a couple of weeks before and was given the drip straight away, no pessery offered. We don't actually know why. This was her first baby and she was utterly terrified of labor and birth before. She was fine. It was quick, just a couple of hours from start to finish and she was unable to have the epidural she requested but was again able to give birth standing up which she wanted as was most comfortable for her.

People will warn you how its soooo painful and you'll be strapped to a bed on your back etc but its not everyone's experience and its not normally negative.

Good luck op.

Oh and just to add do eat if you can like a pp said otherwise you run out of energy, speaking form experience x2

Disappointing to see another woman that hasn't had contact with their midwife to explain all this, I'm sorry to hear this OP. As a starting point if your trust uses that bloody app there might be a link to leaflets that you should have had about induction on there or they may be on your trust's maternity services page.

For me it was turn up, wait, pessary, 8 hourly monitoring, 24 hours later check on the cervix when removing first pessary, bung in a second..when you get to 2cm they put you on the list to go to delivery to have your waters broken and the drip (although looking back I don't know if the drip was actually compulsory straight away like they seemed to hint it was).

If you're lucky the pessaries with start you off so they'll get you down to delivery without too much bother. Ask loads of questions, unless you get a really good one they won't bother telling you half of what you might be worried about. You can have gas and air for examinations, they probably won't offer it.

Take everything with you as if you're in labour as I think from reading on here most places don't let you leave hospital once you've started the induction process although mine did let me go out round the grounds etc as long as I was back for my turn on the monitoring.

For us if we are induced we have to go on delivery suite not the midwife unit but they did have one pool available so you could ask the question. I had an epidural as I had the drip so I didn't get any info on that.

Did they say why you're being induced, I guess you must have seen a consultant if the decision has been made without you seeing a midwife? There's loads of threads on here about inductions so I would trawl through them and write down as many questions as you can, give them to your birth partner to be in charge of making sure you know what's happening and why. I believe in trusting medical professionals but they can be absolutely crap at explaining what options and considerations you have. Have a look at BRAIN decision making too.

Fingers crossed you get one pessary and that gets you going by yourself and all what I've posted isn't of any use 🙂 you will be fine, it may not always feel like it but you will!

Hey, I gave birth 2 weeks ago. For me I turned up, they took me to a shared ward and did some obs like urine sample, blood pressure, heart rate, took my weight, took blood which they said was to do with incase I needed a transfusion if I remember correctly. After that I just had to wait about to be examined, all of this part was in a shared ward I think there was 6 women in the same room, all with curtains round us. As it turns out the delivery ward was very busy and there were no free rooms so I went in at 4pm but wasn't examined until around 10pm after I asked a midwife what was happening (I think I'd been forgotten about as the midwife I asked seemed to assume I'd already started my induction process and was asking to be checked for progress rather than to start the process) a midwife came and examined me, she said if I wasn't dialated I'd have the gel inserted, then they'd leave me 6 hours and check how I was going, she said I could have 3 lots of the gel before they'd switch to the drip if needed but if I dilated enough at any point they'd skip the drip and just break my waters. As it turns out when I was examined I was already 3cm, so she put me on the monitor for 30 mins and said she'd be back to break my waters. Unfortunately there were a few emergencies so they were too short staffed so my waters didn't get broken til 8am the next day. After that I stayed in the shared ward for a bit but for me contractions started immediately and were 2 mins apart from the start, they were so intense I could barely breathe (turns out baby was back to back) so I got moved to my own room rather quickly as I was screaming the place down and they gave me g&a. My whole labour from waters breaking to baby being born was only 4 hours so relatively quick process.

As for water birth, I was told I would have been able to have one if it was a straight forward labour, even though I was being induced. Unfortunately I had a few complications and developed pre eclampsia whilst in labour (had been on monitoring for potential PE for weeks before hand) so needed continuous monitoring and a canula of blood pressure meds so I couldn't have a water birth but in some hospitals they do allow it even when being induced if everything else goes well.

Keeping my fingers crossed for a smooth induction and that you can have your water birth OP! Good luck!

Thank you everyone for explaining the process to me! Completely clueless here and finding the unknown quite scary! I wasn't expecting to be put on a ward with other ladies, which does worry me slightly but so glad I know now so that I'm able to actually prepare myself for it. If anyone else has any induction stories I'd love to hear them 😁

I was induced at 39 weeks.
Went in at 8am, went to a ward with 3 other women and had monitoring for an hour as well as blood pressure taken and a few other checks. They explained what the process would be at this point: up to 2 pesaries for 6 hours each with monitoring for the first and last hours. Examined again after each 6 hours to see if cervix had dilated enough to break waters. If they didn't work then it would be a drip or c section.
I had one pessary and after a few hours had some mild contractions. When I was examined they said they'd be able to break my waters once a delivery room was available. This was about 4pm. A delivery room didn't come available until about 11pm though!
Once had waters broken I had to be monitored and my contractions were much stronger. They wanted to put me on a the drip but I said no. I wanted to see how labour progressed. A few hours later though when I was examined I wasn't any more dilated and I was finding the contractions more painful so I agreed to have the drip but also an epidural. (I didn't like gas and air and didn't want pethidene) This was about 2-3am. I then managed to get some sleep and was 10cm by about 2pm. They said go back to sleep and we'll wake you in an hour to push. DD was born at 3.57pm after a small episiotomy. Overall a positive experience!

I was on a ward with four beds while they were waiting for anything to happen with me. It wasn't too bad actually because everyone was in a similar boat and just waiting around so one or two were happy to chat nervously. Everyone quite considerate with partners etc and nobody had anything dramatic happen, just got the nod on their inspection to get a place on delivery suite then got wheeled off to have their waters done. Because it was a specific bay for inductions it was quite quiet at night as well, they seemed to try to do everyone's observations by about 10pm and not start them again til at least 6am. Obviously if somebody went into proper labour overnight there would have been some activity but while I was in the nights were ok.

Postnatal was a different story but it's just something you have to get through until they rethink the whole process nationally!

It's BORING. Take plenty of snacks and things to do as far as you can. Ask if you can leave the ward even if it's just to go to the hospital shop or something