Cooks balloon or dilapan induction

[shas19]

I'm due in Jan and these are my options for induction. Neither sound pleasant and I've read horror stories about the balloon. Has anyone had either of these and how were they?

I had the balloon induction two weeks ago. I was 41 weeks and my cervix was short and soft anyway. The insertion was not painful but it felt like they had to use a fair bit of force/pressure. They offered gas&air but I did not need it. The balloon sits fairly comfortably with a bit of pressure type feeling and I got a few contractions from it and then mine fell out after an hour. Usually I think it takes 12-24 hours for it to fall out and when it does it means you are around 4cm dilated and ready for the next stage - rupture of membranes. I would happily accept this form of induction again. Hope that helps!

@Bananapancakes6

I had the balloon induction two weeks ago. I was 41 weeks and my cervix was short and soft anyway. The insertion was not painful but it felt like they had to use a fair bit of force/pressure. They offered gas&air but I did not need it. The balloon sits fairly comfortably with a bit of pressure type feeling and I got a few contractions from it and then mine fell out after an hour. Usually I think it takes 12-24 hours for it to fall out and when it does it means you are around 4cm dilated and ready for the next stage - rupture of membranes. I would happily accept this form of induction again. Hope that helps!

Were the contractions constant? I've been induced with a propess before and they were constant but not much change in my cervix. I've read online people saying it's awful so I'm dreading it

I’ve had one (as part of an induction where I had all the other methods too) and the insertion was painless for me. It was similar to getting a smear test as far as discomfort went and actually far less painful than the various pelvic exams I had to check progress. Probably because the doctor got me in the perfect position before starting. The balloon caused some contractions and fell out after about 6 hours, which felt pretty weird.

I had dilapan 7 weeks ago - they managed to insert 4 rods and the insertion took about 20 mins. I bled quite a lot during the process, I didn't expect to see the sheet covered in blood and it was quite uncomfortable. Immediately after I had to stay on the bed, pants off, bloody sheet, as they hooked me up to the ctg to check the baby. I had very mild contractions during the day. They took them out 16 hrs later, i didn't feel any pain when removing, I was 3cm dilated at that point and they broke my waters. Baby was born 4hrs 9 mins later, gas and air only, no stitches needed so pretty straightforward birth at 37+4.
I admit the insertion was unpleasant and painful but it worked fine.

I had the balloon induction 5 weeks ago. It was uncomfortable to put in (but no more than an examination / sweep). You have some plastic tubes dangling out of you, which I wasn't expecting but they weren't bothering me once I was used to them. After about 16 hours I started having contractions which I managed with some painkiller. After the 24 hours the balloon was removed and i had my waters broken and I had my baby 3 hours later with just gas and air. Overall it was very positive. I was 39 weeks.

I had the balloon. It didn’t really hurt, it just felt weird. After about 2 hours it fell out by itself but unfortunately labour did not progress at all and I ended up having an emergency C-section 2 days later.

I don’t know what dilapan is as I didn’t give birth in the UK and didn’t understand much of what I was told (I don’t speak the language of the place I live) but I imagine I had that too. I literally had everything!

@shas19 Sorry for my delay in replying, no they weren't constant, about every 10 minutes and very much manageable.

These replies have made me feel abit better. I'm okay with sweeps and pelvic exams so hopefully it's similar. All the things I read online were saying it's worse than actually pushing the baby out😂