Please reassure me about induction for GD

[stopgap]

I'm 30 weeks and was just diagnosed with gestational diabetes. This will be my second child. First was born in a midwife unit, and birth was drug- and trouble-free.

This time I've been told that they will not let me go past my due date, and will likely be induced between 39 and 40 weeks (DS1 came at 40+6). I am terrified about having pitocin and dealing with the instant, awful contractions, but definitely do not want to go down the epidural route. It's also likely that I won't be allowed on the midwife unit (this is America, and the rules are super strict).

Anyone else been there--easy first birth, lots of monitoring and induction for the second?

I was induced with DC1 (so no natural birth first) and can honestly say I was expecting it to be far worse than it was. My waters had broken but no contractions, the pessaries had no effect so it was the drip.

The midwife said it would take 2 hours for contractions to start and she was spot on. I started with gas and air, followed by Meptid (I avoided pethidin as I hate being sick). 7 hours from start of contractions or first stage, 13 minutes for second stage, although I had a cut as DS wasn't very happy.

Unfortunately I had to have a spinal for manual removal of placenta.

Conclusion - not as bad as expected.

Good luck

Thanks for sharing. I had pethidine once after a kidney op, and felt like I was cartwheeling on the moon, so that's a no-go. Are the induced contractions utterly horrific? Normal contractions to me were very doable.

I am so glad you asked, I have been worrying about this too, am 33 weeks today. I am having SPD problems and a physio said something about epidurals not being a good idea with this. We were planning on everything being natural and now between the GD and SPD I am panicked about everything :( I keep hearing horror stories about inductions. I read that drinking raspberry leaf/taking the tablets is a good option for helping with inductions and also arnica towards the due date.

You may not need the pitocin drip, especially as it is your 2nd child and your body has done childbirth before.

I had a sweep and the first pessary then my waters broke naturally and DC2 arrived just 6 hours after the sweep!

No 2nd pessary or drip required.

And I was 35 weeks PG so DC2 was definitely not ready to come out!

*nannynome" monitoring the GD and worrying about induction have really taken the shine off this pregnancy. I once came to while having an endoscopy (I tried to hit the nurse, and rip out the scope) so am terrified about operations and hospitals, and have also heard too many induction horror stories. The first time it was far less daunting for me to give birth without drugs than it was to take a chance on an epidural. You must let us know how you get on, and good luck :)

Isabella that sounds very positive. I must ask my midwife whether the hospital permits sweeps, or whether it's straight to the pitocin. Hopefully I can have some kind of say in the matter.

I was induced with dc3. I had the pessary put in at about 10 am. Contractions started at 3am and dd was born at 8.15. I would say that the contractions we're about the same as with my two natural births, don't think they were any more painful.