Induction for overdue babies

[Chester1980]

This is more of a query to see what people think, as I’m not quite overdue yet, but getting opinions left right and centre.

My midwife first broached the idea of induction and suggested 12 days over as a point to consider it. With a sweep at my next appointment which is 4 days over. It’s not something she’s pushing on me, it’s just something she has suggested.

I would quite like to give the baby chance to come on it’s own, but it seems like there’s lots of pressure out there (from non medical professionals!) some making me feel like I’m an idiot for wanting to give it a bit longer so the baby can come in it’s own time. I’m talking a few days, not infinite! And there are no other issues.

My concern about induction is that it would lead to more interventions during labour.

Apologies if I am being clueless here.

I was induced with 2 out of 3 of mine (with the middle one I went into spontaneous labour the morning I was meant to be induced). Interventions with 1 but not the other. For me the risk of interventions didn’t matter as much as the increased risk of stillbirth.

I had 2 inductions for my 2 babies - didn't have any interventions and had both within 4 hours of the induction starting.

You can't avoid interventions - if they are needed it's for the best.

I think the risks of leaving a baby to get very overdue are much higher than the risk of needing intervention during an induced labour. I’d go with what they say - ime they only tend to intervene when needed.

I didn’t want induction until 14 days overdue. There was a fair bit of pressure from midwives to induce sooner because “they won’t let you do that” () but the consultant was fine with it as long as I agreed to extra screening after 10 days overdue. I was fine with that and would have agreed to induction/section sooner if the monitoring had raised any issues.

I ended up going in for induction at 14 days late, and the doctor offered to start off with a sweep rather than the progesterone so I could go home for a bit, which triggered off labour anyway so that was all the ‘induction’ I had.

I think the risks of leaving a baby to get very overdue are much higher than the risk of needing intervention

That depends what you mean by ‘very overdue’, what kind of risks you’re talking about, etc. I did not want an induction when I had a Bishops score of 0 because it seemed unlikely to work, and waiting until closer to 42 weeks meant that my body had a better chance of getting itself ready, making either a natural labour or a successful induction more likely.

I refused induction to a point. I had an unsuccessful sweep in that cervix wasn't favourable and it was sheer agony at 4 and 7 days overdue.

Mw booked me in for induction at 10 days overdue but I didn't go.

Had a consultant appointment at 12 days overdue. Had a scan and all was well. They agreed one more sweep at 15 days late and induction at 17 days. The sweep again was unsuccessful but went into labour naturally in the very early hours of 17days late. (Still ended up with a section but that's a different story) but I was really glad I stuck to me guns and baby would come when it's good and ready

After two unsuccessful sweeps I was induced 14days overdue (I was adamant baby was going to come by himself) and that's as long as they wanted to leave me.

Had a pessary put in at 6pm and told to wait. had pains was told pains where not labour just cervix getting ready. Partner went home later on as I was on a ward. Pains progressed throughout the night and I asked them to examine me and they said to wait till 12hours after pessary was in and pains shouldn't of been labour!!

Told them at 4am that I was definitely in labour and he was coming they finally took the pessary out and I was 8cm, they started to take me to labour ward and my waters broke on the way round and he was born soon after I ended up after no pain relief as Gas and air wasn't ready when I got round there lol! Dad finally got to hospital when baby was about 45mins old!

Then I was home for about lunchtime that afternoon so my induction experience was pretty straight forward and fast lol with no intervention