Induction on Friday - What to Expect?

[SecretSlattern]

Am being induced on Friday (40+6) with DC3. With DD I was booked in to be induced and ended up going into labour naturally the day before and similarly with DS, had him the day of the planned induction.

I know there is a chance it could happen again, but the consultant today has told me I need to mentally prepare myself for what is going to happen. I'm really nervous now, especially after a long, traumatic labour/delivery with DS (2 years ago)resulting in forceps.

What can I expect? Is it going to be horrific?

Why are you being induced????
Don't do it!!!!!!

Previous big baby (unexpected!), they can't be sure that this one isn't going to be the same, although they are leaning towards it being big, shoulder dystocia last time, very long labour (for the second time anyway! 25 hours compared to 8 the first time), failure to progress, forceps, loooooong recovery (8 weeks) and now SPD.

It's too late to opt for a CS, I've had enough of being pg now and I want to have the baby before she gets any bigger!

I was induced with DD1. I went into hospital at 4pm on the sunday and after normal antenatal checks (wee, bp etc), a cervical examination, and I was strapped to a monitor for a while. They then gave me a pessary (a tablet with a little string of cotton hanging down from it) and left me for 6 hours. They then checked my cervix again at about 11pm. Then was left overnight to sleep on ward which was a mixture of antenatal and postnatal - so lots of crying babies, was pretty hellish. Was woken up at 6am and cervix checked again. Was told cervix was now ripe and they would get me down to labour suite that morning to break my waters. 18 hours later I was eventually taken to labour suite. They were VERY busy that day and I was low priority. If my blood pressure wasn't so high they would have sent me home. In labour suite they broke my waters and hooked me up to a syntocin drip. Baby was continously monitored and I was essentially bed bound due to drip and monitor. 12 hours later (noon on Tuesday) I was taken to theatre for a forceps delivery.
All in all not a great experience and not one I would want to repeat. My advice would be to put off being induced as long as possible, go out and book yourself a haircut, a manicure, go to the cinema -indulge yourself and do anything to take your mind off things.
I hope things kick off naturally before Friday! Nipple tweeking is supposed to be very good at bringing it on

Thanks GG.

Was told they would be using the gel to get things moving along. Not sure how that is different to the pessary?

I've had my waters broken both times before, and both times it did absolutely nothing. I've got it into my head that I will need an EMCS. DH thinks I'm being daft . I don't fancy the forceps delivery again though but can't decide which would be worse...

Why is it too late to opt for a CS? Hope all goes well for this time.

My advice would be (after being induced with DS1)

ask to be mobile for continous monitoring - apparently they CAN do this - you don't need to be bed bound.

ask to be allowed to eat and drink

consider your pain relief options - after 12 hours of syntocin an epidural was very welcome - even though I was dead set against them!

I would talk through what will happen/ your wants/needs etc before the process starts, not get swept along with the process like we did without asking questions.

and good luck

I was induced with my DD, I was absolutely dreading it however it turned out to be fine, so doesn't necessatily need to be a hideous experience.

I had the pessary, which did dilate me a few CMs. I utterly hated being stuck to a bed being monitored, I asked them to take it off so i could go to the loo, when I came back I said that I didn't want the monitor strapped on. They were fine with this.

I had my waters broken about 6 hours after the pessary. This was also fine - didn't hurt and really did bring labour on. DD was born an hour and a haklf later. I was lucky that I didn't need syntocin.

I was induced with dd as 2 weeks overdue, got given gel (9am ish) & monitored for a while. Was free to have a walk round every so often as monitoring was only intermittent. I was meant to be having another lot of gel mid afternoon as nothing really happening but they were busy so nothing else got done. I was having mild contractions which felt like backache but nothing else. I wasn't allowed home as lived too far from the hospital so dp went home about 9ish, my backache got worse eventually in established labour midnightish & moved to a suite. Put on an oxytocin drip had pethadine as didn't like g & a. They didn't phone my partner til 6am ish so he had a good nights sleep! I hadn't wanted an epidural but was a back to back labour & was so relieved when I had that done. Dd eventually born 4.30 pm with ventouse. I hated the hanging around waiting for the gel etc to work, all these other women coming in & quickly being moved to labour suite & me just sitting there waiting - still! Try not to get too nervous & good luck x

I had 1 induction and 3 home births. Ds3 was born on Friday last week, at home, and was a BIG baby - 10lb8 - and his shoulders did get a wee bit stuck, resulting in some swift manoeuvering by the mw to get him through the pelvis. It was fine, but was an anxious moment - involved her thrusting my legs up to my ears and pressing on something to get him through, and I think she hooked his arm through as well. So a scary thing looking back, and I did feel utterly unable to walk for a couple of days, as if my pelvis was broken in two!

So induction - I had this with ds1. I went in 10am Saturday at term +12, was monitored for an hour or so, after all the usual checks/exams. Had the prostin pessary, then further monitoring. After an hour or so I was taken off the monitor, and able to walk around - I think I was essentially in labour before they stated with the induction, so things progressed q fast. I had a bath, and was having significant contractions, asked to go to delivery suite for pain relief, was told they were 'busy' and I wouldn't be in established labour yet...but on examination was found to be 5-6 cm. So they wheeled me down to delivery. I was quite shocked by how fast things were going, and requested an epidural which they duly gave me. This did slow things down, but was a great relief at the time! This was about 1pm or so.

Ds1 was found to be in some distress a bit later on, they did blood samples from his head and decided to 'let' me try and deliver him normally. He was posterior lie, and although he did eventually turn, it was quite drawn out. He was born at about 7pm.

If you have had shoulder dystocia, and big babies, and SPD, I would be quite wary of an induction, as this can increase the risk of shoulder dystocia, and especially if you have SPD, it would be difficult and painful if they needed to manouevre you to get the baby through. (Forceps wouldn't help - it's getting the baby past the Symphisis Pubis bone I think that is the problem, and is only evident after the head is out - they 'turtle' their head back into their shoulders). So if you're not totally against the idea of a CS, I would ask if there is ANY way you can go for that option. Having had ds3 get a bit stuck, it wasn't fun, and was scary, and can have serious consequences.

Hope that isn't too 'doom and gloom' - ds1's induction was in the grand scheme of things 'ok', but very clinical.

Thank you for your experiences. I am still quite nervous about the whole thing but am off to bed to try and forget about it, at least until tomorrow!