Does early induction really take 5 days?!

[Blue2014]

Late onset GD, they're saying they will want to induce at 38/39 weeks. Junior doctor says this process takes 5 days in hospital?! Is that right?

I was induced on Tuesday, had DD on Thursday, went home on Sunday.

My partner stayed with me until about 1 in the morning when nothing was happening and the midwife said my cervix was still unfavourable. Luckily he was staying at his friends who lives over the road from the hospital because I ran him to come back 45 minutes later when I started contracting like mad.

I was induced just after due date both times. Both times absolutely nothing happened and I ended up with EMCS. This time I have been told I can't even attempt VBAC and have to go straight to CS. DH had to go home in the early stages both times (ie overnight), but came back again around 9am. There's sometimes a bit of hanging around waiting to get started.
They let me out for a potter round the nearby shopping centre second time around as it was a case of staying mobile and waiting for things to kick off, which they never did!

Sorry, should have said, was around 48 hours from first pessary attempt to CS both times.

Depends. Sorry to hear you have GD.

I was induced with dd2 (dc3) at 36+6. I was suffering from acute recurrent kidney stones and showing signs of renal insufficiency. My cervix was high and closed, but they said they'd give it 24 hours from pessary, then go to drip/breaking waters or section, depending on how i was holding up (dd2 was 100% ok but i was struggling).

I was given the pessary at 6am by the doctor (had to be the doctor as I was 1 day pre-term), and managed to go back to sleep for a couple of hours. Was having regular contractions by 10, in "established" labour by 1, went to delivery at 4 and she was born at 6.30. I only had to push for a few minutes, I was in delivery as they wanted to hold off on using pethedine because I'd had a lot for my kidney stones, and i was screeching for Gas&air by then!

So 12.5 hours with only the pessary. They were really not expecting it to "take" - I think it was as I'd had 2 previous vaginal deliveries so my body had an idea what was happening and just got on with it.

i hope any planned induction goes well for you. Don't be afraid to ask for pain relief etc if you need it, and have a wonderful time getting to know your new baby!

First baby, I went in on the Wednesday afternoon and had him early hours of Friday morning. I was 39 weeks. Good luck!

I was induced at 39+2 second dc, I went from nothing to holding DD in 7.5hrs. But I was started off by them breaking my waters no pessary or drip.

I had pessary 0900 day 1 and was contracting by 1300. Then it all stopped. I was taken to labour ward at 1130 on day 3 utterly bored and pissed off. Waters were broken about 1300, nothing happened. Drip started about 1530, DC2 born just before 1700.

Once I was in labour it was very fast, the induction process however was bloody awful.

Forgot to say, that was at 38 weeks

No lol. It can take some hours though and the first method doesn't always work! With my first induction a pill was inserted into me. This caused some contractions and I did get to 4cm then they broke my water around 12 hours later and I gave birth around 8 hours later.

With my second we got to skip the pill and went straight to breaking my water.... they said I was the only girl in the hospital that day who didn't go into labour after that!!! I needed the drip in and from my water breaking to birth was 17 hours. I was also 38wks both times

I was induced at 38+3 for GD..Went in Monday afternoon first pessary at 16.00 my son was born at 23.57 Tuesday night. I was discharged 17.00 on Wednesday.

I wasn't induced early, very overdue both times. However my cervix was not favourable at all. I was given a prostaglandin gel, and a double dose due to my silly cervix! Given the gel both times on a Tuesday evening around 8pm, had my first child at 9.50 on the Wednesday evening and my second child 1.30 on the Wednesday afternoon. They are 10 and 8 now and I know they now use something different to induce which is worrying me as it does seem to take much longer for people to go into labour this way. It is possible that if this baby measures big I would be induced around my due date rather than 2 weeks over.

I was induced earlyish (38+2) for preeclampsia. Told it was all systems go on Monday, went in Tuesday morning, pessary in at lunchtime, waters went and contractions started that evening, had DD1 on Weds morning at 10am. Was discharged c. 5pm on the Thursday.

They told me it could take a while but it really didn't and I needed no further interventions than the pessary to get everything going. It wasn't a negative experience at all.

Depends. I was induced at 38w with my first, 36w with my second, both due to diabetes.

DD1 was born about 30h after the first pessary. DD2 was about 40h. Actual labour with DD2 was only 4h.

Thank you everyone. Been on my mind a little overnight which means I haven't slept much. Goodness knows how I'll sleep the night before induction!