Induction experiences when overdue

[surreygirl1987]

Morning! If my sweep is unsuccessful I'm booked in for an induction on Friday. I don't really know what to expect. I'm low risk and currently my mw has absolutely no concerns other than the fact I'm more than 41 weeks, so I guess they'll try me on the pessary first. I'd be really grateful for anyone's descriptions of their induced births - both positive and negative experiences are appreciated as I want to be realistic about it!

Many thanks!

Morning. I wanted to post because I read so many negative induction experiences but I had a real positive one around 6 weeks ago now. I was couple weeks over and due to posterior cervix they could never do a sweep properly and it was very painful for me. I was induced by pessary which is a bit like a small tampon, at 11am. It wasn’t situated quite right so didn’t do anything but by 5pm it was re-adjusted and started working well. Contractions steadily built and lots of walking around helped. By evening I was having them quite often and went to the labour ward when I couldn’t cope without pain relief. My established labour was 1hr 48 minutes and baby born at 3am the following morning. I highly recommend standing up if you can!!! No issues and no constant monitoring which was good for me and baby and able to move about. I hope your experience is as positive as mine as not all inductions are bad!! Also the time may sound like a long while but it went so quick, if that makes sense. good luck

Thanks!! That sounds like such a positive experience!! I've heard loads of bad ones so far so it's nice to know it can go well!

Many congratulations!!

Thank you. It was the first time I’d had induction so just went with an open mind and tried to relax. I’d heard / read bad things as well so wanted to give you some good vibes. A lot of people say about increased intervention/ monitoring etc with induction but I didn’t experience any of that and my baby was just under ten pounds which no one was expecting..... but I didn’t have to have any intervention and highly recommend standing /squat down to give birth because I only had a graze, even with his weight 👍🏻
Wishing you well and let us know how it goes. X

Hiya! I had an induction at 41+5. I really, really wanted to labour in water but was told as soon as I got to the hospital that I wouldn't be able to as they needed to monitor me. I'm not totally sure why that was - it might have been because I'd been in a couple of weeks before with reduced movements, or possibly it might have been because my bump was measuring too small (although baby was born at 8lbs 12, so he was obviously just tucked up!).

The first thing the midwife said to me (very kindly) - on correctly interpreting the look of disappointment on my face that I wouldn't be having the 'natural' birth I'd hoped for - was something like: 'This is not a bad outcome. Believe me, I've seen the worst possible outcome. As long as you get to take your baby home, it's not a bad outcome.' That sure got things in perspective for me!

I had a pessary at about 6pm. Had some dinner, walked around. Went to sleep about 10pm. Woke up with a contraction at midnight. By half midnight, I was having four contractions in ten minutes. Continued to have lots and lots of contractions, dilated to around 3-4cm, and got moved down to the delivery ward after a couple of hours. I had a paracetamol early on and I think I might have had oramorph as well. Other than that I did hypnobirthing techniques. Spent most of the time with my eyes closed, feeling fairly calm and focused!

Unfortunately I didn't dilate any further than 4cm. My baby's heartrate dropped to 35bpm at one point, then recovered. The midwife broke my waters to try to get things moving faster. Didn't work! Baby's heartrate dropped to 35bpm again so they injected me to stop contractions, took a blood sample from his head to check his oxygen levels, and got me to sign the paperwork for a C-section so that if the oxygen levels came back too low, they could get him straight out.

Oxygen came back too low, I was whipped straight into theatre and baby was taken out. It was a Cat 1 but everyone was very calm and smiley, and one of the staff members even offered to take photos for us. I was terrified of having a C-section beforehand (I am terrible with needles) but I can honestly say it was a GOOD experience for me. I'm also really glad I got the experience of being in labour, even if I had to have intervention in the end.

Wishing you the best of luck!

Hi lovely - will share mine as it's a bit of a mixed bag, but really not too awful!

I was induced with a pessary at 10pm due to being over due. It came out three times 🙈 but then it finally started to work at some point in the middle of the night. By 7 am I was 6.5cm and went to delivery room.

Every pain relief made me sick so I opted for the epidural, and I'm so glad I did!!! After really steady progress, I stopped dilating at 9.5cm......and was there for 6 hours!!! With no progression and a little stressed out baba who they were struggling to monitor, they tried to use ventouse which didn't work...so forceps in the end. I just missed having a c section thanks to amazing doctors. He was born 24 hours after being induced at a healthy 8lb7oz.

I was worried about the epidural effecting what I could feel, but I could still feel every contraction, just more comfortably and was able to push when told! I jumped off the bed after and went straight for a wee so no problems using my legs.

I didn't find out til after that I had a button to top up my epidural if needed haha! I'm glad I didn't use it too much because I felt I was still in control.

Good luck lovely xxx

Thanks so much for all the replies. Really appreciate it. As it happens I avoided induction by a mere day - but the replies you gave me were so helpful any way as I had totally resigned myself to baby not arriving without being induced!

Congratulations @surreygirl1987!! Glad you had a safe delivery of your baby. These are all really helpful ladies, I am due today and know that 13/14 days is still a long time for things to happen spontaneously but just getting my head around what could be...

I was induced at 41+3 after a 2 failed sweeps. I had the pesaary at 9.30 am and it worked pretty well I did end up having my dd on the induction ward as the mw thought she knew best my contractions were irregular but very strong I couldn't even have the use of gas and air as it didn't arrive until after I had her! She arrived at 6.40pm and it was pretty text book. I was also induced with my ds at 39 +2 I had a sweep and my waters broken but ended up having the drip at 2.30pm he arrived at 5.24pm induction is far more painful in my experience.

Congratulations.

My friend's sister just had an induction as she was overdue. Pessary at 6pm, pains at 8pm, baby born 11.30pm. So they're not all terrible. Good luck x

Just read your update. Doh!

Congratulations xx

My induction is tomorrow at 41+12 so although Surreygirl didn’t need these stories, they have been a great help for me! Thank you

41+12? Not that far!! 40+12

Best of luck for your induction tomorrow @RowenaDedalus - although 🤞 baby gets a wriggle on for you before then, you never know. Be sure to let us know how everything goes, I'm 40 weeks today and the next 2 weeks seem like they might tick on...

Thanks @running365 Yep every twinge I’m feeling today I’m getting over excited could be labour... it’s not!

Love threads like this as currently 41+1 and trying to remain calm. Or if not calm, resigned to the fact that we’ll have a baby this time next week. Have 3rd sweep tomorrow so hoping that brings things on.

Congrats on your spontaneous little one arriving OP! 👍😁

I had two sweeps with my first and they didn’t work, just hurt a little the day following but nothing major (don’t worry) so he had to be evicted! I went in on the Monday and was given a pessery early morning, I didn’t have any pain or anything all day but slight period cramps in my back that night. The next morning I was checked over and again no progress’s so they gave me a second pessasry, later that day I started to have contractions and was in slow labour. The rest of the night was the same but contractions started to increase in pain and frequency but I was still only 2cm by the Wednesday morning! MW said that’s good though as they can finally break my waters but I’d have to wait as two people ahead of me, well my son wasn’t having that at all 😂 my waters broke within seconds of her saying that which was 9am he arrived at 12:30! I wouldn’t say it was a negative induction, slow to start but once my waters went it was all systems go! Being induced is quite nice I’m away as you know you’re in the right place with loads of people watching over you. Good luck xxx

Sorry forgot today he arrived at 42 weeks exactly.

Wow @Treenas that's amazing to go from slow pessary start to your waters just going and then such a quick birth!! Love your positivity. In my trust it's likely that I'd be able to go home for the 24 hours of the pessary, if the initial monitoring goes well and I feel comfortable to do so. What do you think your feelings would have been on this, had you had the choice? I'm just trying to manage my expectations of how it could all pan out if everything's 'straightforward' up until then.

@Running365 Just seeing the question re going home; it’s all dependant on you but personally I wouldn’t because as pp said, and I experienced it can be very fast. I went to labour ward at 3 cm and within 40 mins I was ready to have baby. It depends I guess on how far you live and also how your risk factors are. Best of luck everyone about to go through it. Let us know how you all get on

To put it bluntly, mine was absolutely awful.
2 hours over all but it was so so much worse than my first which was natural and 14 hours.
I went from 4cm to 10cm in 15 minutes, when I said he was coming they just laughed at me. Never want to have that experience again.