40+11 with a 'very posterior' cervix, 3 failed sweeps and baby in posterior position. What are the chances of induction working?

[RnB]

Well it looks like my lovely planned home waterbirth isn't going to happen now

I just don't know what to do. With my cervix being how it is and the position of the baby, I feel that a hospital induction is likely to fail. At my 2nd sweep on tues the midwife said they would be unable to break my waters considering the position of the cervix.

I'm also not sure that I want to 'force' this labour anyway if the baby is positioned incorrectly only to end up with an EMCS. I had a 41hr ordeal with posterior ds1 which ended with him being born face up (rare).

DS2 was also posterior but turned during labour and everything was fine (v positive experience)

Labour with ds1 started after a sweep on my due date, ds2's after one sweep at 40+14.

Am constantly trying to turn the baby, it does turn but always reverts back to OP position.

What would you do? My induction is booked for Sunday morning.

IF this your third baby once you get some contractions baby should rotate. You will probably need some prostin to get your cervix to move forward and that might even get you into labour.

Sorry about possibly missing out on your homebirth- sending lots of labour vibes things can change very quickly when its your third baby.

I would try to relax, maybe give your self some more time.
It seems like your body just likes your babies in a posterior position and as your last baby turned in labour there's no reason why this one shouldn't.
Cervix's can change very quickly and dating is not always accurate, you might just need a few more days.
Have you tried any of the Spinning babies techniques-
I have used this to good effect (with some belly dancing!)
spinningbabies.blogspot.com/2008/02/alternative-to-induction.html
Selina

I was exactly the same last December, planned home waterbirth, baby overdue, two sweeps, cervix still 'very posterior'. The only difference to your situation was that it was my first baby.

Had very honest consultant who said that she wasn't happy for pregnancy to continue, and that induction was unlikely to work. I went for ELCS and had a fantastic birth experience.

In your post you say that you feel a hospital induction 'is likely to fail'. Are you against the idea of an ELCS, do you want to wait it out until you go into labour naturally? Or do you think a c section might be an option you would consider?

Really hope you get an outcome you are happy with, and have a really good birth.

RnB - I feel for you. Your 1st labour sounds like my 1st labour was 4 months ago.
I dont know that I can offer any advice, but would like to offer you support and positive vibes x

just caught up with these responses, thank you so much for taking the time and for your lovely words.

Bechka not against an ELCS at all, in fact would much rather that than go through a failed induction. It's given me hope that your consultant was really honest with you, I suppose I'm scared that the hospital with just try to go through the motions with me despite the unfavourable cervix. Really glad you had a positive birth experience

Pregnantpeppa blimey, what an experience you had. I feel for you stalling at 9cm. I have considered monitoring too - I think I need to see what the consultant says. Did you have a scan to see the placenta and the fluid round the baby? And how great that they were still willing to come out to your homebirth.

Thanks to sillysow, selina and ella too. I'm in at 10am, hopefully will be out v soon with my baby

The title describes both of my births!
first was induced, had an epidural, and dd did not turn. She was born face up
With my second, I went from a twinge to birth in 3.5 hours, literally no warning, my waters went and I was in full labour. Having had an induction and a natural birth (I did have a sweep 2 days before though) I would hnestly try and avoid the induction again. I was on a total high after my second. Fwiw, I have since been told that since both of mine have not responded to attempts to turn before labour it may actually be the shape of my pelvis that encourages the OP position. With the first I was lying down in labour which obviously doesn't help. With my second I was upright the whole time, and babhy turned with no problem. I do hope t all goes well for you, you could have your baby before the end of the match you know

RnB i went for home birth with DD, and got to being fully dilated when she wouldn't pop out. Turns out she was OP (not sure why Midwives didn't know this) but we ended up in hospital with epidural and ventouse to turn her which worked. Did they try ventouse with your first OP labour?
This to me was preferable to C-S, even though it meant I had to give birth in hospital.
As others have said, you can choose to turn down the induction tomorrow and go for daily monitoring, and let mini-RnB arrive in his/her own time.
I am booked in for induction next Weds, but have been advised that because my body has been through labour already, it will kick off and progress much much faster than a first labour would.
Hope you get what you want - don't be bullied into something you aren't comfortable with.

RnB - I was induced with ds (dc2) with a posterior cervix which was just 2cm dilated (because he wasn't my first, rather than because anything was actually happening). I took my time over advancing the different stages of the induction. They tried 4 or 5 pessaries over the first 3 days that I was in for, none of which did anything much. But I was VERY keen to avoid rushing into a drip or anything that might increase my chances of a c-section, so I then waited patiently for 36 hours until they had a delivery suite free to try breaking my waters. This was the difficult and somewhat painful bit, and you need an experienced midwife to be able to break waters in someone who is that posterior, but obv it can be done as it was with me!
I spent 4 hours dancing around the delivery suite, but nothing much was happening, so i returned to the ward for the night. I did start having some contractions overnight, and the next morning I agreed to have the drip. Around 3 hours later ds was born with no further interventions necessary. I was very glad that I had proceeded with caution at each stage and not allowed myself to be rushed by 'procedure'.

So to answer your question 'what would you do', I would go in for the induction but take it one step at a time - there will be lots of monitoring during the process anyway, so if things take a turn for the worse then you can obviously opt for a c-sec at any point.

Good luck .

Really good luck for tomorrow RnB.

I am guessing they will examine you before proceeding with the induction, and if so and nothing has changed, could you take the opportunity to ask to speak with someone in more detail about chances of success of an induction? And then take it from there and maybe ask them whether it would be more advisable to explore the option of ELCS?

I really hope that whichever route you take you have a positive experience and a quick and calm birth. So exciting that you will surely meet your baby very, very soon - at last!

Thank you everyone

Well I am home after having my Bishop's Score assessed as only 3 as I had feared (under 5 means induction is v likely to fail).

We agreed with the doctor to give it some more time. I'm having a scan tomorrow to check on fluid around the baby and the state of the placenta and am booked in to the hospital again for possible induction on Wednesday.

The doctor made it quite clear that ELCS wasn't an option and that I would basically have to go through the whole induction process before having a EMCS if necessary.

Am hoping and praying that I go into labour naturally somehow! I had my 4th membrane sweep before I left, cervix still massively posterior.

Thanks all for your advice

I had a similar experience. I went to 42+1, three failed sweeps, cervix not favourable. I'll be honest with you - a four day induction, with prostin pessaries, did jack diddly squat and I had a c-section at 42+5. Technically an 'emergency' but it really wasn't. I knew the evening before I would be have it if nothing happened in the night, and it was pretty straightforward and calm.

Good luck. You never know what might happen between now and Wednesday!

Best of luck, really hope you go into labour by Weds. As it is your third, I guess the situation can change very quickly and you could have baby in your arms in the next couple of days - I really hope so, you are doing brilliantly to cope with the waiting!

Hello everyone, well I'm back home with my beautiful baby girl

I went for the monitoring scan on Monday and it revealed that I had huge amounts of fluid around the baby (3x more than normal), which could be potentially something serious (especially the risk of cord prolapse if the waters broke), so the decision was taken out of my hands and I had to be induced that evening.

I had the pessary tablet inserted at 10pm and by 3am started having mild tightenings. My cervix was still very posterior. By 10am I was taken up to the labour room to have my waters broken - this was done with difficulty as I was only a tiny bit dilated and position of the cervix. Also because of all of the fluid I had to have an 'Assisted ARM' which basically meant I had the registrar with his hand inside me preventing a possible cord prolapse and the midwife pushing the baby down at the same time.

As horrific as this sounds it was actually quite amusing as they let me get high on G&A and there was so much water that I practically flooded the room! The poor registrar was covered in it (was even inside his shoes!)

After this they left me for 2 hrs to see if I would start contracting on my own, but I was only having 1 contraction every 10 minutes so they started the dreaded drip. They started it on a low dose which was increased every 30 mins or so I think. The contractions started coming and soon I was getting 3 in 10 mins.

The baby's heartbeat was decelerating with the contractions so during this time there were loads of doctors and midwives coming in and out basically deciding if they needed to take me down to surgery then and there. I think my midwife was quite worried but the doctors eventually said we should carry on.

I was coping with breathing for some time but moved onto G&A when I got to about 6cm dilated. By 7 cm I was really struggling with the pain and struggling to cope. Part of me knew that the time of the birth was very near (I was very emotional, really felt like I was losing control) but part of me was dreading that I still had hours to go.

In fact I'd gone from 7cm to fully dilated in minutes. I think this is the point when I told the midwife to 'turn the f*cking syntocinin machine off'

They examined me on the bed and the baby's head was really low and 1 push later the head was out. Next contraction the body was out.

In total the established labour lasted just 4hrs. Very intense, agony and the end but obviously all worth it. She's beautiful.

Yey!!!!!! Well done you - particularly the bit involving the registrar's shoes. Congrats, congrats, congrats.

Well done RnB. Am loving getting the registrar's shoes and that you had the where with all to tell them to turn off the drip. It's made me a whole lot more positive about accepting interventions if I have to (which they're starting to suggest).

Congratulations on your beautiful baby girl, loved reading your birth story! Well done as well on the birth, sounds like you were very brave!