Anyone induced at 40 weeks experiences?

[Mama2b99]

First time mums?
How did it go?
How long did it all take?
Did you stay in hospital or be sent back home after initial induction method?
All in all how was it?

Got mine booked in for next Saturday and super nervous.

I was induced at 40+3, using foley balloon as I had a previous c section. It was good in dilating me to a 4cm (I was a 1cm initially and had 2 sweeps prior to this induction).

Try to keep as active as possible, do laps of the hospital and stairs are your best friend!

If you're not high risk, they can send you home with the foley balloon, not sure if they can with the hormonal pessary as it does need more monitoring incase of overstimulation.

Personally mine never worked out to be a VBAC, but that was down to baby positioning. I've heard of lots of successful inductions, though it is usually more successful to go spontaneously yourself as your body is more ready. You need to weigh up benefits vs risks whether you can wait it out for spontaneous labour which is optimal, your pregnancy risks etc.

Ps my dilation to a 4cm, from initial 1cm was 24hrs. There were a few women around me who had to try a few different methods to dilate and some options caused over stimulation of contractions and some didn't have any effect at all.

I thought the foley balloon was great as I was already 1cm!

I was induced at 42 weeks first pregnancy.
None of the sweeps did anything.
First pessary went in and contractions started soon after.
Ended up with epidural and oxytocin infusion. Vaginal birth with suction cup but lots of talk of C section being needed.
Recovery from birth as expected no lasting issues.

Admitted 6pm
First pessary 8pm
Painful contractions 11pm/12am
Moved into labour room around 5am (4cm)
Epidural 😅 but slows contractions
Moved to theatre 4pm (10cm)
10 minute of pushing
Baby born

I was induced at 42 weeks for dc1&2.

Pessaries didn't work.
Had the drip.
Contractions started
Waters broken
Baby born after 6hrs from contractions started for both of them.

Dc1 was pretty straightforward but had to stay in a couple of days as he was jaundice.

Dd was back to back or she'd have been birthed quicker I think: I had a PPH so was in for 2 days again.

I stayed in hospital from the Pessary and gave birth the following day.

Didn't have pain relief as pain wasn't too bad with either of them (more of an intense pressure with the back to back).

People say inductions are harrowing but I probably had the easiest birth experiences out of my friendship group.

I was induced at 40+1, ftm too. Had 3 sweeps from 39+2. They got me to 1.5cm, so went straight to having my waters broken (though had to wait 10 hours for a bed in labour ward). Baby born exactly 8 hours after they broke my waters 😊no regrets and a really positive experience!

Induced at 41+1
First time mums? Yes
How did it go? Went in as an outpatient at 8am, was 2cm dilated and had pessary inserted. Strong cramps started at 9:30am and continued without a break. I called triage at 3pm as I was having what I thought were contractions every 1.5 minutes and I couldn't cope any more. Arrived at hospital at 3.50pm and my waters broke. Waited in triage and told them I needed to be seen straight away due to pain, triage saw I was 6cm, sent me straight down to labour ward where I was 8cm and then taken to theatre due to baby's heart rate. Avoided an emergency section as I then reached 10cm as they were about to put me under, received an episiotomy but avoided forceps as I was able to birth baby myself in theatre.
How long did it all take? Induction appointment at 8am, baby born at 4:59pm.
Did you stay in hospital or be sent back home after initial induction method? Sent home
All in all how was it? Very quick, didn't have time to worry due to it being so quick, all staff were lovely. Safe to say the induction definitely worked for me!

I was induced at 37+5 due to big baby and GD.

Went in for 8am on the Wednesday bit of waiting around and some monitoring of my blood pressure and baby's heart rate using a belly band, then about 10/11 ish they inserted the pessary and did a sweep.

An hour of laying on the bed with a belly band on making sure baby was ok.

Then it was just lots of waiting around. Walked around the hospital a lot, went to the cafeteria, chatted to DH, then as dinner time rolled round I sent him home and was admitted to the ward. Had a really dodgy plate of sausage, mash and peas, watched telly, read magazine, more wandering around the hospital. Tried to sleep but the thermostat was set to 'hotter than the fires of Hades' so not much luck there. Got bored at about 3 am and snuck out to nip to the local Tesco Express for emergency ice lolly, chocolate and more magazines, then back to trying to sleep.

Next morning DH came back in, they did some more monitoring of baby and blood pressure, all good so we waited for someone to be free to check for dilation and decide next steps.

They checked about 1pm and I was dilated enough for them to break my waters. Bit more monitoring, then I did some more wandering and chatting to DH, contractions started pretty much as soon as my waters were broken and were well established by about 4.30pm so I headed back to the ward. About 6pm I was suddenly sick and felt like I needed to push, told the nurse on the ward who said she needed to finish some paperwork and then she'd check. I told DH to get ready to catch, so she rolled her eyes and walked over and said 'ok, ok I'll take a Quick Look' then she said 'oh, you're crowning' and ran out to the corridor to get help to get me to a delivery room. I was pushing as they wheeled the bed into the delivery room and DD was born as we arrived in the room.

2nd degree tear which was stitched up while I had a bit of gas n air. If they offer you a pain killer suppository take it, that stuff number my bits for a good 24 hrs, great stuff!

I had to stay in overnight because they needed 3 sugar tests on DD to make sure my GD hadn't affected her. I sent DH home. DD was fine so we left at 8am the next morning. I didn't bother calling DH, just got a taxi as I had the car seat there with us, and we were home by 8.15am.

MIL dropped in at 9am with a massive latte and a huge chocolate brownie for me to get some cuddles before she went on holiday.

I was induced on the Monday at exactly 40 weeks due to high risk of preeclampsia and high blood pressure.

I had 3 gels over 2 days, unfortunately they did nothing and my cervix was still unfavourable and unreachable, I therefore had the balloon on the Wednesday. Unfortunately that caused a big bleed (this is not common) but they decided to keep the balloon in, after the full time the balloon was taken out and also hadn't done anything. I was told there was nothing more to be done so I was waiting for a section. I was still waiting on the Saturday but I went into spontaneous labour, had an extremely quick precipitous labour, rang my partner at 1.30am saying come now I am 6cm, in a matter of minutes I was 10cm, way too quick for any pain relief. The baby was delivered in theatre due to his heart rate dropping, I had an episiotomy and a ventouse delivery, I was told I'd be having GA but thankfully his heart picked up at the last moment.

Everyone's experience is so different. Despite mine feeling traumatic at the time, now I look back (3 months later) I was really lucky. Incredibly fast labour, didn't require a section in the end, no last damage etc. I would go through it all again. Good luck! X