Has anyone refused induction?

[elliej83]

I really don't want to be induced. I'd like a natural water and I know my due date has been incorrect from the beginning as it is currently based on 2 days after a miscarriage and it was at least 10 days after miscarriage that I stopped bleeding and 14 days I believe that we had sex. I also had my HCG levels tested several times during this period so the GP said it's highly unlikely my due date is correct. It's out by at least two weeks.

Getting an induction date imminently. I don't like the idea of being induced and have read a lot about it and how it can be much more painful. Has anyone refused one past 12 days? If the baby is still moving and the placenta is working I can't see what the issue is.

I refused all pharmaceutical induction. I agreed to sweeps and went into labour at 41 +6. They were going to put me on daily monitoring from 42 weeks and 'review' the situation every 48hours from then.

I'd refuse it too, in your position. Mine was similar, with the bullshit due date I knew was wrong and the HCPs refusing to accept it. I was lucky enough to go into labour naturally about three days after I refused induction the first time, when I think they were gearing up to start insisting, but what can they actually do? They can't really knock you over and get stuck in... ;)

Wishing you all the very best of luck!

My mum was induced when she knew the dates were wrong, and it was a mess. If you think your dates are wrong, you stick to your guns!

I refused an induction on the basis of being confident about my dates and a week having been taken off my due date after ultrasound. Speak to the supervisor of midwives to discuss this in more detail. The issue is that things can change quickly and although it is very likely that you will have a healthy baby the hospital will want to offer inductions to reduce the incidence of stillbirth across all the women using the service, this results in hundreds of inductions but does save some babies lives. So make sure you inform yourself, it will help you if you do or don't decide on the induction. If you don't do it, you will have to be armed with your reasons. There is a brilliant booklet by AIMS which you can buy from their website called "Inducing Labour: Making Informed Choices" that gives you all the research for and against induction. Lastly, if you do decide to try to start labour you may still be able to have the water birth, you can choose to have a cervical sweep or try the pessaries or acupuncture to start labour and then continue with a midwife led birth, if these don't work after a few days you can then consider stronger methods like a drip. I haven't had an induction though, so I can't say what these are like. Good luck 👍🏽

I refused an induction with dd2 as I thought they'd got my due date out by a week. The consultant was an arse about it but said i could go in for daily monitoring if i went more than two weeks overdue. But went into labour after a sweep anyway so all was good.

I'd definitely be refusing an induction in your position op.

My mate refused and gave birth 42+1. She said it was hard work saying no though.

Fwiw I was induced both times, first time took a while to get going, second time was a lovely natural water birth.
The pain comes fast with induction but if you can get in the zone it's totally doable.

Good luck whatever you decide

I refused induction until 42+1, and I don't remember it as being particularly difficult. Daily monitoring. It emerged I was likely to be a spectacularly poor candidate for induction at that point, so I had a CS.

Oh this is interesting as I've been thinking about this. I'm 41 weeks now. Booked in for a sweep on Wed but - despite being massively uncomfortanle - I don't want to be induced. Do the mws tend to get quite pushy at 42 weeks?

I refused sweeps and inductions. Nothing wrong with my due dates I just didn't want interfering with. Midwife was fine about it. I started daily monitoring at 41+5 went in to labour at 41+6. Pretty sure I would've had the induction at the slightest hint of trouble though.

I also had a bullshit due date. I told them they were wrong throughout my pregnancy. I refused the first induction but they made me go back 3 days later. I wish I'd been able to stand my ground more back then and had people looking out for me.

I had 2 inductions which didn't work followed by an emergency c-section. Then the midwife told me my due date was probably right after all. I question everything I'm told now.

Me too. I also thought my dates were out by a week, and my babies tend to come late anyway.
I found I was really pressurised to have the induction and it was hard to stick to my guns. But I managed and labour started naturally. DS was born after straightforward labour at 42+4 (their dates) or 41+4 (my dates). Everyone agreed when they saw him that my dates were probably correct.
Best of luck!

Milkshake I think it depends on your HCPs but I know quite a lot of people who have been induced before 41 weeks at our hospital.
Brown76 - I have the AIMs book, you can download it for kindle so I'm halfway through it on there. They have a helpline too so if I get that far I think I may call them to chat through too.
Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences. I've never actually heard anyone say they have refused induction so it's good to see it does actually happen!

So you are 40+12 but believe you at two weeks earlier, meaning 39+5? What dating scans were done on your pregnancy and when? If I were you, I would be asking 'what if'. By either assessment, your baby is definitely full term. By your medical team's assessment, your baby is getting close to post-term and to a time when the rate of stillbirth increased massively. It is not always possible to predict this even with the closest monitoring. If they are right and you refuse induction, you are running a risk of stillbirth. If you are right but you are induced now, your baby doesn't run any risk of prematurity. Consenting or otherwise to treatment is your right but I for one would not be prepared to run the risk of leaving a pregnancy potentially well past 42 weeks. I don't see any benefit that outweighs the risk.

Sycamore - Here are the exact dates...

I'm currently dated at 40 weeks on this coming Friday via an ultrasound scan. This would mean I conceived 15th Jan.

I started to miscarry 13th Jan and had HCG levels of 150 on this day.

The GP repeated the HCG test on 29th Jan and it came out at 8 so she confirmed miscarriage.

By the beginning of March I had no period so I took a pregnancy test which was positive. The doctor reran the bloods and HCG level came back as 24,000 so I was def pregnant.

The earliest the GP wanted to date conception was 29th Jan when I saw her as she said there was a small possibility I could have started a new pregnancy when the HCG came back as 8. However she felt unlikely. She was really surprised with the ultrasound date as I was bleeding heavily for about 10 days after miscarriage and no sex for about 14 days.

Just to clarify the the British Medical Journal Cotzias et all report the following around still birth...
Week 37 - 1 in 645
Week 38 - 1 in 730
Week 39 - 1 in 840
Week 40 - 1 in 926
Week 41 - 1 in 826
Week 42 - 1 in 769
Week 43 - 1 in 633

That's taken from the AIMs book on induction. It's a common misconception that it increases massively after week 40 when it's actually the same in week 38 as 42.

Three times :)
I have long pregnancies (& I was the result of a long pregnancy). Can you speak to a SOM & explain you would like your due date changed? I was told they didn't care what I said & only the scanning due date estimates were used but the SOM & consultant were quite happy to fudge the due date when it was closer. The 12 wk scan has a +/- of 7 days (I think) so push for the 7 days in the right direction.

Your body, your baby, your decision. The NICE guidelines actually say post dates should be offered induction OR monitoring (in my experience they just keep offering induction...)

Thanks user. It says in the NICE guidelines that any other evidence beyond the scan should be taken in to account but it hasn't so far. I think that's why I posted on here as I wanted some more real life examples of people having these conversations and where they led. I didn't know if I was best to just get in the mind frame of I'm going to be induced and make the most positive experience I can of it!
I have emailed AIMs for advice too. It is a very hard decision because it's hard to take responsibility we're anything to happen but it seems pretty much impossible that my dates are accurate. Whilst the perceived risk of going past 41/42 weeks seems common knowledge the risk of inducing early does not seem to be at all.
If the conversation with the midwife doesn't go well on a Monday I think I'll ask to speak to the SOM. The consultant seems to hate over testing as I was sent for a growth scan he didn't think I needed and he spent 25 mins telling me that scans were rubbish and he could feel the size of a baby more accurately through a bump with his bare hands. He said he used to play a guess the weight game when a woman went into labour and he had a good record
Thank you again for sharing your experiences it does make me feel brace enough to start the conversation. It doesn't help that I've changed hospital half way through as we moved but all the history should be on my file I guess.

No induction needed in the end. DD made an appearance this morning at 41 weeks. I was due a sweep tomorrow.

Oh that's amazing news milkshake congratulations! Does DD have an official name yet? Don't worry if you don't want to share.
I had a very good chat with a midwife from AIMs who gave me a lot to think about