Come and tell me about inductions...

[mama2moo]

Im 40+2 and getting worried about being induced. Dd was born at 39+5 so this is all new to me!

Do you have to wait until 40+12/14? Can you request one earlier?

Do you always have to stay in once they have put a pessary in or can you ask to go home?

Any tips or advice? Thanks

you will most likely be offered a stretch and sweep at 41 weeks or so, this also gives the MW a chance to assess your cervix and do your bishops score.. which is a good way to see if you are ready to labour and if induction would be succesful or not

your best chance of a straighforward labour is to labour spontaneously.

if you do get induced, you can still remaind active, mobile and upright, however if you require syntocinon to augment /induce contractions, then you will be offered constant monitoring and will be unable to use the pool and will have a drip, which does make it a bit trickier to move, but there is no reason you cannot use a birth ball or stand next to the bed, lean on it, walk around a bit even with CFM

once you have had a pessary, if you need one, you will be monitored for an hour then your best bet is to get off the ward and potter around. you will not be discharged until your baby is delivered though.

it can take 2 -3 pessaries to get you into labour or to get you dilated enough to have your waters broken, once that happens, you will be transferred to labour ward, until then you will be on the Ante natal ward

if oyu are examined and you are already dilated enough, you can bypass the pessaries and have ARM which will be done on labour ward,. you usually have an hour in which you will be monitored and then see if ctgx start, if they don't start , you will be given synto

it is important to rememebnr that induction is a process, and once you start down teh road of induciton,you can't change your mind !!

Don't have an induction unless it is medically necessary.
Just let your baby come on his / her own.

If you decide to have an induction, it will no longer be your birth - it will be the birth of the Consultants - they will be in and out all the time, have time limits on everything and it is definitely a process as Lulumama says.

what are you reasons for wanting the induction? just because you are impatient?

i had an induction 2 months ago. they used a new pessary that can stay in for up to 24 hours. so no need for repeated internals and insertions. my midwife said mine was the first she'd done but it was fine!

i was really worried about mine too, but it was really great. pessary took 10 hours to get things really going. in this time dh and i walked all around the hospital (after 20 mins on monitor) stopping off at every cafe. he then went home and i settled down to watch the soaps on tv, had dinner, etc. went to bed..then contractions kicked in, pessary dropped out with the show. ds was born 4 hours later! far far easier than my 27 hour back to back labour with dd

mine felt much more like my own birth than my first. no consultants, just 2 lovely midwives.

My tip would be ensure that you are clear about your wishes to remain as mobile as possible (within the constraints of the monitoring.) Luckily my DH wouldn't accept the staff telling him that I literally could not move from lying on my back, and got them to get me a bean bag to lean over on the bed, which was great!

TBH, I wouldn't request one (although I am sure other people would say otherwise!) as lulumama says, the best chances of a straightforward labour are if you labour spontaneously. Thats not to say that you are guaranteed to have a difficult one if induced obviously! I was railroaded into have one at 40 + 5 when there was nothing wrong with me or baby - openly told me they didn't have any 'slots' for 7 days after that and by that time my baby would be 'in danger'.

Thanks all, some really useful info

I think one of my main worries is leaving my 19mo dd for longer then I would if I went into labour on my own

From what you have all said I think I will try to avoid it as best I can.

I am going to see my mw on Tuesday and will be 40+4. Are they likely to do a sweep then? I could go on Thursday but much prefer the mw who attends the Tuesday clinics.

Why cant these babies just come on time

I was induced with DD when she was 40+12. Sweep didnt do anything for me.

Im expecting number2 in May and even if late will be refusing induction as much as possible.

I was induced at 11pm at night with my waters breaking naturally at exactly 12pm.Midwives thought if would be a fast birth. They were wrong and it was taking ages to dilate at all. Was put on the hormone drip to speed up and intensify the contractions, which my god really did kick them up a gear which was not nice at all!.
After 27 hours I had finally reached 10 cm but DD was back to back and stuck. I was prepped for an EMCS. In the end they managed to turn her with vontouse and after shoulder distosia pull her out with forceps.
Impossible to know how much part in all that the induction played but needless to say its not something I want to repeat in a hurry!

Personally I will be waiting for this baby to appear on its own accord this time. DD will only be 22mths in May so I understand how you feel.

Hi, mama2moo, I had induction with DS1 at 40+15. 2 membrane sweeps had not got me going...

Had 2 pessaries, mild contractions over night, had membranes ruptures which really got things going . Had epidural which slowed things down, so needed syntocinon. He was delivered just fine and all in all it was a good experience.

However - having gone into spontaeous labour with DS3 (at 40+12 and after 2 sweeps) was a completely different and very positive experience: felt in total control, took 7 hours from 1st pain to delivery and needed only G+A. Also had major postnatal rush which I had not had with DS1 - not sure whether that's connected or not. This was also a VBAC after emCS with DS2, so was v chuffed with myself.

IMO only be induced if there are sound medical reasons. A normal pregnancy can last to 42 weeks, the 'date' set at 40 weeks is pretty random.

Good luck!

Thanks. After reading your posts I am wondering whether to keep going as long as they will let me!

I will go and see my mw on Tuesday to discuss my options.

I suppose I have been thinking that its going to be better to get the baby out asap. But, I dont like the idea of intervention so actually the baby can stay put

You can opt for active monitoring, or whatever the exact phrase is, instead of induction: they will see you daily for CTG and possibly frequent scan assessment of placental function.

Hi, I had inductions with both of my children, first was because of premature rupture of membranes, so went straight into having the rest of my waters broken followed by syntocin drip. That was hard work and I ended up with an epidural and ventouse.

However, second child was a different story, so as this is your second you may find induction is OK. I was induced because of going overdue (9 days) so pessary was used at 9am. I'd given birth by 3pm (they weren't even going to examine me until then and I had to get husband to find a midwife at 12:30pm!)

I was really worried about being induced again, and it turned out really well.

Do hope you don't need it at all though!

expectant management, pacificdogwood

good point! you can ask for this, whihc is more frequent scans and listening in to the baby, rather than induction before 42 weeks

if there's no health problems they're likely not to want to induce before 40+10 and you may well go into labour naturally before that.
for my ds2 they had a new prolonged pregnancy clinic you go for another scan and they give you a likelyhood of going into labour without induction. they gave me a low chance, but they were wrong he did come out by himself after 10 days, induction was booked for a few days after that. just stick it out till 2 weeks over if there's no problems, and you might not need the induction. if you do it's not the end of the world. i had ds1 induced, it is much more of a medicalised birth but that might have been cos i had pre eclamsia aswel.