Induction using gel

[Sparkles1992]

Hi ladies,

I'm currently 40+2 and being induced in the morning as baby has slowed down and has dropped off growth chart slightly. Can anyone tell me any nice positive labour stories as all I know is that inductions can take days and end up in c section etc. It will be the gel they use every six hours depending on how much I need etc..

I had a sweep yesterday and it's scared me even more because I found it painful and not nice at all! I think that's because I was so tense though, it definitely didn't help. So now I'm worrying about getting the gel up and being examined etc!

I know I need to get my big girl pants on ha ha but I'm a first time mum and I just feel so so nervous!

If anyone wants to share their stories that would be great! Thank you

Hi.

I went in to be induced with my first baby.

I had the gel at about 6pm.
At midnight the pains started quite suddenly (no real build up to them though, they just started full throttle really) and my son was born at 8am.

It was a very straightforward, relatively easy and quick birth.

Good luck for tomorrow!

3 inductions, 3 straightforward births,
I was advised to take pain relief as sometimes contractions come on fast and I took everything offered!
On average it took about a day to get "stuff" moving.
Good luck!

I've had three inductions, all resulted in a vaginal birth! Two only needed the gel, one required the drip too, although it was at 34+5 so he did need to be strongly encouraged out! The other two were done and dusted within about 10-12 hours each and the closer to due date the quicker the labour.

Hope it goes well for you!

I had a failed induction followed by an EMCS. No contractions or labour pains. Absolute breeze. The only downside was that they didn't let me eat anything the whole time so I was about ready to gnaw my own arm off by the time they sent me to theatre 12 hours later! So my advice is to eat as much as possible before!

I was induced with gel in the morning, was perfectly ok until 2 pm, then contractions started quite quickly and by 8 pm my DD arrived. Very quick birth.

Good luck!

I had my first baby in March and was induced due to reduced movement. Fab experience!

Pessary in 8:30pm - things started within half hour - the pessary was then removed in the morning as we didn’t take too well to it - he arrived by 2pm :) Vaginal birth gas & air. Couldn’t have asked for a better experiance!

Drink lots and lots and lots of water if you can - will help the labour delivery process 👍🏾

Oh I was able to eat too so take lots of snacks with you!

I was induced, and whilst it took ages (5 days) it was overall positive and I had a vaginal birth with no interventions at the end.

I also found the examinations and gel insertions extremely painful, and refused to consent to any of them without gas and air, which they were happy to provide and made a huge difference to me mentally. I still coped with labour when the drip was in, with just tens machine until 7cm.

Good luck and hope things move quickly for you!

Thanks so much ladies, fingers crossed for a nice smooth labour 🤞🏼 what pain relief did people find helped the best? Did anyone opt for an epidural? X

Yes, epidural with all three. all straightforward, no other interventions.
Good luck.

Ive always just had gas & air or nothing at all but gas & air is all u need
Im on pregnancy no7 baby no6 & its all i needed.
Hope it goes well x

DSis (paediatrician) has attended thousands of births - when I was being induced her best advice was to demand an epidural before the syntocinon drip goes in - otherwise you might have to wait ages, and around 96% of inductions request an epidural because the contractions are not like normal labour, they are sped up and are usually extremely painful. It's not a sign of weakness, it's good planning.

Best of luck!

Got gel at about 1am, had 2 paracetamol and went to sleep. Woke up having period type cramps a few hours later. Went to loo, waters broke. Phoned DH to come in. Baby arrived less then an hour later. I had planned to have an epi but no time and not needed.

Ahh just catching up with this thread, my labour wasn't as nice as yours all sounded 😭 but my little boy is 4 weeks old now and bloody perfect !

Thanks for sharing your stories everyone x