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Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

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Original poster

Induction Experiences

13 replies

Eggcellent29 · 07/02/2020 15:07

Would any of you lovely ladies be happy to share your experiences of elective induction? The closer to 40 weeks the better :)

Thanks!

OP posts:

Hepsibar · 07/02/2020 15:32

Interesting to reflect back ... firstly well done for having enough knowledge to ask about it ... I didnt even know and it wasnt mentioned in the baby prep classes!

For my DD, I was stuck on a ward with a load of Mums 2 b who were in, in case they gave birth too soon and all were smokers ... and indeed smoked in the little garden so it was awful for non smokers to use. Firstly, I had the mysterious "pessary" which had no effect and my main memory of this, was a doctor conducting a conversation with me whilst giving me an internal. To this day I am cross with myself for not saying, I would like you to talk to me about this before/after ... so please be firm for me and dont get bullied or treated like a "pregnant cow" rather than a human being.

The pessaries didnt work so I ended up on a drip which then meant I was stuck on the bed attached to a great big machine that recorded DD heartbeat ... unfortunately, our machine was q faulty and it would often stop and it was v worrying ... but was told not to worry "it's just the machine" but still I had to be attached to it and stuck on the bed and not move ... this meant I also had to go to the toilet in a bedpan which is a most unedifying experience.

I had an epidural after many hours of labour and several shifts of staff whose names I could all remember and this led to a forceps delivery and ventuse for my son ... the epidural for me didnt make that much difference to blocking the pain and it seemed to me it was being topped up a lot however, I did remain lucid. What I found though was that I needed to be reminded how to push (like going to the loo). I also didnt like anyone shouting or being loud just calm and warm words of comfort. Would recommend bed socks to keep you feet warm and extra pillows as you never get enough in hospital.

Good luck.

Original poster

Eggcellent29 · 07/02/2020 16:13

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience!

That sounds like it was quite the experience! I’m sorry that your doctor thought it was ok to chat whilst doing an internal and I can’t beloeve they would let people smoke in the garden!! Thankfully our hospital is smoke free throughout so fingers crossed that won’t be a problem (not that anyone seems to care, people spark up all over the place!)

I’m worried about possibly needing intervention and an epidural. I suppose it’s the unknown really - it could all happen quickly or it could take days!

Did you go home at all? My hospital didn’t say I would have to stay put but I didn’t explicitly ask if you see what I mean

OP posts:

dottyrobin · 07/02/2020 16:20

I had to stay in the hospital once induction had started. It felt like a really long time (cabin fever, no sleep) but it was only 2 days.

On the drip I was fine with gas and air for ages until things ramped up and I had diamorphine injection. It wore off quickly (I was asleep so maybe it wasn't that quick).
Pushing stage I had option of gas and air but to be honest didn't really use it. No intervention or epidural 8lb 13oz baby.

sulkysukey · 07/02/2020 16:32

1st: induced at 39+6. Had to go straight on drip, they were able to break my waters soon after this but then my contractions went from 0-100 so had epidural at 2cm dilated and it was great - went to sleep listening to audiobooks then woke up and was ready to push. Pushed for over an hour.

2nd: induced at 41+6. The pessary was all it took, waters broken after about 6 hours of pessary, epidural at 9cm dilated (not sure why they let me have it as was ready to push by then). Pushed for 10 mins.

3rd: induced at 38+0. Pessary did very little just got me to 2cm so they could break my waters. Then onto drip. Contractions ramped up very quickly, no time for epidural so all on gas + air. Pushed for 5 mins.

Really happy with all my experiences (at 2 different hospitals).

Megan2018 · 07/02/2020 16:43

My induction at 40+2 failed!

First they tried the Foley catheter but couldn’t get it in (bloody agony it was too) so then they put the pessary in (which was just as painful).

Within minutes I was violently sick and had hyper stimulation of the uterus, my BP rocketed and baby wasn’t happy so within an hour it was removed.

Whilst they left me to recover from that my waters went spontaneously that night and I had a pretty straightforward and pretty quick gas and air birth - 6.5 hours active labour and went from 2cm-5cm in under 2hrs.

So my induction went pretty wrong but my birth was great!

I was considered high risk as had GD and was 41 (first baby).

Original poster

Eggcellent29 · 07/02/2020 21:30

It sounds like I should expect to stay in hospital from the word go then!

The idea of the pain doesn’t bother me too much - it’s more the risk of complications or interventions. Don’t get me wrong, I am bricking it, but I figure it won’t last forever!

OP posts:

LittleTopic · 07/02/2020 21:39

Depends on your hospital!

I had a pessary at 41+6. Was allowed to go home for 24 hours. Ended up back at hospital 15 hours later anyway as my contractions were close enough together that they wanted to monitor.

Ended up with EMCS as DD was in distress! But I think it was always going to end up that way - we’d been in twice the week before with reduced movements.

Original poster

Eggcellent29 · 08/02/2020 10:02

Ooo that’s interesting @LittleTopic! I’m hoping we would be allowed to head home - we don’t live far away so it’s not like it would be an hour back or something!

How did you find the c-section?

OP posts:

Myotherusernameisonholiday · 08/02/2020 10:59

Hi op
I had 2 inductions, one started at 41.5 and one at 41.4. Both very similar, had the 24 hour pessary, monitored (strapped to hr monitor and had to stay in bed) for I think an hour and was not allowed home because of a slight blip in heart rate of DC.
First birth contractions started about 15 hours after pessary and waters broke maybe 5 hours after on their own. The pessary had all but fallen out after 24 hours but when they removed it I was already 8cm. DC1 born 4 hours later with g&a.
Second birth after 24 hours pessary in, nothing had started but my cervix was soft so they broke my waters and DC2 born 2.5 hours after that with g&a.
The first bit of Induction felt long and boring. I watched some films and read and slept (really badly, I should have picked ear plugs and eye mask!) With DC1 I wish I'd been a bit more vocal about being in pain and asking for a check as I was quite quiet so it was a surprise for everyone (except me) that I was so far along and at this point I was still on the induction ward with no pain relief I then had to wait for an hour for a room to be free so more fun with no g&a... I was heavily monitored with both once waters had broken as I had 'significant' meconium in my waters but I'm guessing that was because I was overdue?
It is a means to an end! Good luck!

Myotherusernameisonholiday · 08/02/2020 11:03

I should have said I suppose technically mine were not elective Inductions as I was overdue, but I was repeatedly asking for a date for both from 40 weeks as I had a feeling I would not go into labour naturally. I think they were 3 and 4 days before I would definitely have been given one!

LittleTopic · 08/02/2020 11:07

@Eggcellent29 I think if you’re otherwise healthy and baby is fine they can let you go - for one it could take another couple of days and they need the beds! We went shopping

Section itself was fine, you can feel a sort of pulling sensation but no pain, and it was super quick - 10 mins from the midwife pulling the emergency cord to DD being born! All the staff were super calm and chatty and it really put me at ease.

Original poster

Eggcellent29 · 08/02/2020 19:46

@Myotherusernameisonholiday Ah, so they would have let you go home if DC heart rate had been ok in that hour? 15 hours sounds like a long time to just be hanging around the hospital, I think I would go mad! It’s reassuring to hear that you managed both with gas and air :) thank you for sharing your experiences

@LittleTopic touch wood we haven’t had any causes for concern other than one period of reduced movement - and ofc as soon as I went in bubba was dancing like he/she was at a disco!

OP posts:

Myotherusernameisonholiday · 08/02/2020 21:05

@Eggcellent29 yes the first time definitely, was told to not get too comfortable even, they wanted me home I guess to save on beds! and they were quite disappointed for me when they saw the blip, but I was happy enough to stay as I'd sort of psyched myself up by thinking I'd not leave the hospital until I'd had DC!
With the second, with the history of my first birth (which was fine but required extra monitoring) they were more cautious I think, and never outright said I might be allowed home, but again with the blip on the monitor I stayed. I should have said, because of this I think I was monitored maybe every couple of hours for half an hour on the hr monitor but when off if I could pretty much go anywhere on hospital grounds so we had dinner, went for a walk etc, it wasn't bad at all!

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