induction stories wanted plz (good and bad welcome)

[readyfornumber2and3]

Hi all,
I am booked in to have my labour induced on wednesday morning when I will be 36+6 with twins. It has been my decision to be induced and was wondering if others who have been induced could share their experiences with me

I know no one can answer how long it will take to work but roughly how long did it take for things to get going?
Was it painful?
Did it lead to further intervention?
I am happy to hear the good and bad as I want to be fully informed.

TIA

Hi there I can offer you two induction experiences one good, one bad!

DD - induced at term due to severe SPD. 3 days of nothing but prostin pains (caused by the gel/pessary causing contractions but not actually doing anything to my uterus). Finally got into labour, 36 hours, waters broken, given the drip etc, awful position due to continual monitoring, 2 hours pushing, threatened with forceps, immensely painful but managed on gas and air.

DS - (only 4 weeks ago!) induced at 38 weeks due to GD. Prostin pains for 4 hours, into labour, waters broken, good position despite monitoring (supported squat on the bed), immensely painful (well it is labour!) but again only gas and air, 20 minutes pushing. Total labour recorded as 2 hours 30 mins!

Hope you have a nice and speedy, problem free delivery xxx

I have been induced once (and had 2 natural labours) and it was miles better than I feared.

I didn't want an epidural, staff thought I was MAD - it's the norm here in France to have one with an induction - but I'm glad I didn't as I felt in control the whole time. From start to finish it lasted less than 5 hours, and the painful part was over in less than an hour

Honestly it was no worse that my 2 spontaneous labours, and no I needed no intervention.

Does that make you feel better?

Good luck!

a lot will depend on how ripe your cervix is

if it is not ripe, it can be a much longer drawn out process as it might take up to 3 doses of prostin to get your cervix softened and dilated enough to stimulate contractions or for your waters to be broken etc

do ensure you are as active as you can be, certainly before labour is established, you might be more restriceted then , but even so you can still use a birth ball, stand leaning on the bed with the bed raised up....

the more immobile and restricted you are, the more change you might need more help to get things going and keep them going

eat and drink lightly and make sure you wee/poo as you need to

best of luck!

Thank you both

Do you think that having had a natural labour first things may kick off a bit quicker?

I dont want an epidural either and have a feeling they will try and push for it as its twins! But I am determined to at least try things first and see how it goes lol

better than I feared too. Was induced after waters broke (so maybe was pretty ready to go) and 4 hrs later there was the baby.
Downsides: i felt afraid, as had heard of bad experiences, and greater chance of intervention, labour was more 'intense' than last time (spontaneous), felt a bit inhibited in early stages by having 2 midwives sitting all the way through, constant monitoring made me a bit anxious as I obsessed about baby's heartbeat.
Upsides, could still move about, midwives very willing to crawl about on all fours holding hte wires, gas and air was enough pain relief, short labour meant i was less tired at the end...
good luck, hope all goes well

I've had 4 inductions

dc1 at 41 weeks by my dates, 42 by theirs was very long & drawn out - 2/3 days (had ARM)

dc2 at 42+2 over and done with in 10 hours

dc3 at 40 weeks - another long & drawn out one 2 days (had ARM)

dc4 at 42 weeks over and done with in 11 hours, was fantastic coped on tens machine and then gas & air for the last 3 hours.

All of mine were unassisted deliveries, I had a nick and labial grazes with my first but no stitches, 1 stitch with my 2nd nothing with the last 2.

So yes the more ripe my cervix was the better it went for me.

Thanks all im feeling alot more relaxed now

The consultant saw me on thursday and said that my cervix was softening and had moved forward but wasnt dilating but hopefully things will have changed by wednesday morning

With my DS my waters went and he was born just over 3 hours later so at what point would they consider breaking my waters do you think?

I think I am anxious about timing as my mum is in hospital so I am relying on friends to look after DS and dont want to put them out too much - I know that babies will come in their own time but I cant help worry!!

They'll break your waters as soon as they are able if you're not dilating consistantly on your own IYSWIM, well I think. It took days to get me to start dilating enough to do the ARM in the first place, once the ARM done it was al quite quick.

WARNING: The ARM really hurts and then the contractions come thick and fast. Ask for an epidural before you agree to the ARM IMHO!

I'm going to be induced at term (around 4th september) because of medication and I'm really worrying about it. I'm worried as have heard how much more painful it is and really don't want to be in hospital for ages. Presumably there's nothing you can do to ripen up your cervix

I was induced with my first last Wednesday due to no fluid/erratic CTG traces. I was term + 10.

Wasn't expecting to be induced but they found the above problems at my + 10 appointment, booked me for induction the next day, but I had to go for an extra CTG trace that night when I was told they were going to induce me that night as there was no sense in hanging around until the next night

Skipped the suppositories, and had ARM followed by a Syntocinon drip. Contractions started within 15 minutes, managed to last for 2 hours with paracetamol and codeine, then had gas and air for a couple of hours, before giving into pethidine.

It wasn't horrible, but then I have no other labours to compare to. I think the main problem was how thick and fast the drip brought on the contractions, really didn't get much of a break between them. Also I was having my contractions constantly monitored on the CTG, and the baby had a thin wire monitor attached to her skull which has left a little W shaped cut! Being strapped to the bed was everything I didn't want, but it wasn't awful.

Labour lasted 6.5 hours from ARM to finish, and hasn't put me off so can't have been that bad

The only thing I know is everyone has a completely different labour. However I was induced and I hope never go through it again. I don't know how much was due to induction and how much the labour would have been like that anyway but it wasn't a great experience. It went something like this:

Was 10 days overdue (by my own calculations I was 20days overdue!) and blood pressure was creaping up. Was fairly cheesed off and just wanted labour to get started but 2 sweeps hadn't done anything. Midwives didn't feel my cervix was very soft. Anyway was given a pessary at 6pm sunday night and left to sleep. Unfortunately couldn't sleep as antenatal ward was filled with overflow from postnatal ward so was filled with crying babies.

6am they examined me and decided the pessary had done as much as it could and next step was to break my waters artificially, but I would have to wait for a labour suite to come free to do this. 18 hours later I was still waiting for a free labour suite. The libo was hell. the worst bit. Anyway at midnight on Mon I was taken to a suite, waters broken and immediately out on syntocin. The contractions were pretty bad, but I think I would have coped much better if I as well rested. As it was I was exhausted before I even had a contraction. So went for epidural at 3am. It was bliss. Even got some sleep. By 11am I was 10cm and tried pushing, but baby's head was in wrong position (looking over her shoulder) so they had to reposition with forceps, which required an cut. which then unfortunately tore badly, into a 3rd degree tear during the actual birth. She was born at 1pm Tues (about 12hours of contractions, after waters broken)

But I don't know what I could have done differently, if I hadn't been induced I'm reasonably sure she would still be in there now (at 18 months) as there was no signs of her arriving of her own accord.

However I have heard great stories of straightforward inductions and horror stories of "standard" labours so its impossible to predict. Just go with the flow, and I'm sure it will be fine