Any labour ward midwives around?

[Cuppasoupmonster]

Hi,

My obstetrician has agreed to a water birth if following the pessary I go into labour without needing the drip. I’m being induced at 37-38 weeks, second time mum, was induced at similar gestation with my first but needed the drip then. What are the odds the pessary will be enough? Thanks x

PS - please no ‘pessary worked but I was 42 weeks’ stories, being induced early is completely different ball game!

Bump

I'm not a midwife, but I have had a second early induced labour, after a first early induced labour that needed the drip.

I'm afraid I needed the drip a second time around. I will say though, that the gel pessary did work much better than it did with my first. I had very painful cramps, and it brought my cervix forward and dilated to 2cm after a single dose. But sadly no more than that. I then waited 4 days to go onto delivery suite during which I didn't get so much of a sniff of a contraction, and baby remained resolutely high. Once on delivery suite I had a managed ARM (as baby was so high still), which, as with my first triggered zero labour, so I had the drip. Drip labour pain was much more manageable second time around which was nice. I was moving around and trying out different positions for quite a while.

Sorry that might not be what you want to hear. Hopefully someone will come along and say I am in the minority.

Forgot to mention, inductions were started at 37 weeks exactly with my first, and 37+1 with my second. Babies were born at 37+1 and 37+6 respectively.

Hi @Cuppasoupmonster Im not a midwife sadly but I was induced at 39 weeks, with pessary and was first baby. 6.5 hours after the pessary was inserted I gave birth. I don’t know whether the dates I ate religiously from 36weeks helped to speed up dilation but nobody believed I was contracting with any dilation as they expected 24hours +.

There is some evidence on date eating and helping dilation / stronger contractions for pushing which is why I did it. It was an urgent induction following a growth scan at 38.5 weeks so I was well on my way eating the dates so don’t know if it’s recommended for induction or not!

Pessary worked with me for second pregnancy at 38 weeks

My SIL had pessary at 38 weeks and it was successful.

Good luck!

Not a midwife either, but I was induced at 38 weeks due to small size for dates, first pessary I started contractions after 8 hours and within a few hours following them baby was born (all very fast!) As with pp I tried dates (couldn’t manage too many though) raspberry tea and a lot of time on the birthing ball in the 2 weeks beforehand! Not sure if any of that helped or if it would have been quick anyway. Good luck!

Thanks everyone, really helpful stories. Sounds like I a have a chance of the pessary working! Going to start eating dates at 35 weeks, will 2 weeks of eating them be enough?? What about the raspberry leaf tea?

Oh god! I had forgotten about the dates until I read your post 🤣 I was desperately shovelling them in at the end of my pregnancy.

Went in for induction at 38+0 and didn't even need pessary, was already 4-5cm dilated and waters bulging. Had waters broken and delivered DTs four hours later. Unfortunately being a twin delivery it was medicalised to fuck and the most dehumanising experience of my life but at least I got to go home straight from delivery suite. Good luck OP (I found the dates were even nicer with peanut butter)

I think they say you’re supposed to have 6 dates a day for it to be effective, I found them horrible and only managed a few, same with the raspberry tea! I do think that hypnobirthing was what helped me the most, I tried to keep calm and keep oxytocin levels high, downloaded a few comedies to watch on my phone (they told me it might take 4-7 days so I was prepared!) and I tried to keep active. I am pretty sure this is what helped me progress without other intervention (though I also think this is why no one believed I was in labour until I was 6 cm 🙈)

I was induced at 37w 5days, pessary inserted, then 24 Hr wait so just hung around the hospital then shown to a ward where I did t sleep because it was the temperature of the sun.

Everyone was a bit busy the next morning so they checked me around lunch and had dilated enough for them to break my waters. Everything went pretty quick after that and DD was born just after 6pm.

I had hormone drip and was allowed to have a water birth (I ended up getting out anyway).
Did they give a reason why you can't? The midwives at my hospital used a mobile monitoring kit for the bath.

I'm due my second soon and will be induced too so I'm hoping just the pessary works this time. Might need to get some dates in after reading this!!

2 inductions at 37 weeks. One with 3 pessarys, ARM and 2 hours of active abour. Second ARM, drip and 1 hour of active labour. Preferred the drip for sure.

Pessary worked for me at 39 weeks exactly, so a little later than you but not overdue. That was for ds2. Ds1 came on his own at 40+5. Both were after a sweep.

How do dates help with cervix dilation exactly, what's the evidence for this? I would've thought they'd just stimulate the bowel which surely you can achieve with enough fibre in your diet...?

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21280989/

Try nipple stimulation, as it can trigger contractions. Also do things to promote oxytocin such as dimming the lights, playing relaxing music, try bouncing on a ball and keeping mobile to get baby in the right position.

if they hook you up to a drip what ever you do don’t stay on the bed, or if you do decide to stay on the bed get on all fours, and move around, most important thing is to keep mobile, you need baby’s head to press on your cervix and get into position, sit on a ball and walk around the room, and eat and drink. You might not feel like eating and drinking but try to do so as really does help.

if you have to go to the labour ward you can still dim lights and keep the room quiet, but the midwives will probably want to put on the light to examine you

start helping to get the baby in the right position now by walking, getting on all fours leaning over a chair and sitting on a ball you can start nipple stimulation around 38 weeks

I was induced at 37 weeks I had a balloon induction and I'm glad I did. I had the balloon fitted at 10.30pm and by 11.30pm my waters had broken so the balloon was taken back out and Ds was born at 00.21.
Due to medical reasons I couldn't have the pessary.